Should I file a homeowner's insurance claim or pay out of pocket?
Deciding whether to file a claim depends on whether the repair costs significantly exceed your deductible and how a claim might impact your future premium rates. Engaging insurance for minor or moderate repairs often risks driving up your long-term costs or triggering a rate increase, leaving you wondering if it is better to just pay for the work yourself.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Getting a quote for repairs before decidingDid this help you?
- 2Paying for repairs out of pocket to avoid insurance rate increases or being droppedDid this help you?
- 3Paying out of pocket to avoid insurance headaches and claims on recordDid this help you?
- 4Using an emergency fundDid this help you?
- 5Using tar on the underside of unglued shingles to try to stop leaks temporarilyDid this help you?
- 6Paying for a roof replacement out of pocket to avoid involving insuranceDid this help you?
- 7washing and polishing the scratch to see if it is livableDid this help you?
- 8getting multiple quotes from different shopsDid this help you?
- 9Asking online forums or mechanics for rough repair estimates before filing a claimDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“So my question is do I try to file a claim for this? Obviously I need to start reading my insurance docs, but I guess I’m asking if it’s even worth considering. Or is this something that I’ll need to tackle myself.”source ↗
“Is this something worth engaging homeowners insurance for? Or better off just paying”source ↗
“I'm going to have to replace the roof no matter what at this point, but is it worth opening an insurance claim?”source ↗
“I can't point to any specific event that might have caused the leak, but we did have several rounds of severe weather here.”source ↗
“That said, if they don't find an issue or don't pay much more than the deductible it's probably not worth it.”source ↗
“She’s wondering if she make an insurance claim or not.”source ↗
“wondering if it makes sense to go through insurance and pay directly out of pocket.”source ↗
Where this came up
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