The Unique Challenges Of Roofing Multi-Family Homes
With over 14 years of experience in the industry, Aaron Brookens of Brookens Construction joins us to explain the roofing challenges faced by property owners of multi-family homes.
Multi-family homes are popping up all over America, offering affordability and a sense of community to those who occupy them. However, housing multiple families under one roof comes with a unique set of challenges for property owners, and one of the most crucial yet often overlooked aspects is the roof that unites them all.
In the world of construction, tackling the complex task of preserving, maintaining, and improving the roofs of multi-family homes is no easy feat. It requires expertise, especially in the hail prone state of Wisconsin.
Just two years ago, in 2021, Wisconsin recorded the state’s third-largest hailstone in history, a stark reminder of the havoc hail can wreak upon homes and properties. Roofs brave the elements, enduring dents, cracks, and fractures that, if not addressed right away, can lead to long-term damage.
Yet, as Aaron Brookens, Co-Owner and Founder of Brookens Construction, attests, one of the biggest challenges in roofing multi-family homes is not in the laborious process it entails in the aftermath of a storm, but actually in the process of claiming insurance and getting approved.
“The magnitude of the claim directly correlates with its likelihood of being denied,” Brookens tells us. “Insurance companies aren’t typically going to show up to a million plus dollar loss and say, ‘Yes, there’s damage, here’s $2 million dollars.’”
Multi-family property insurance
According to the Insurance Business Magazine, the multi-family real estate insurance market in the United States has hardened significantly over the past few years, resulting in restrictions in coverage terms and conditions. As a result, it may take years before an insurance company settles a claim, even if the damage to the roof is obvious.
“In my experience, one of the insurance carriers’ main strategies is to delay settlement until the association or the policyholder gets so frustrated that they cancel the claim,’” says Brookens.
Brookens has been in the roofing industry for over 14 years, and has become a highly trusted partner for homeowners in Wisconsin. He’s helped replace thousands of roofs damaged by hail, and earlier this year, Brookens Construction was ranked 1,372 in Inc. 5000’s list of fastest-growing companies in 2023. A large part of his company’s success has to do with their dedication to helping their clients navigate their insurance claims.
“Us documenting all the damage, pulling local building codes, and pulling technical bulletins from shingle manufacturers, has gotten us our client’s insurance claims approved, and sometimes even without the help from a third party,” he says. If that’s not the case, he continues, “then we refer the client to a third party public adjuster or property loss attorney, go through those depositions and ultimately the association obtains a settlement to get the work done.”
The reality is, insurance companies prefer to have multifamily real estate owners be held liable for incidents that occur on their property, but as Brookens proves, it doesn’t always work out in their favor.
The other really important piece to multi-family claims, as he explains, is that condo associations typically have a deductible per building and while the association owns the policy on the exteriors of the units, the individual condo owner owns the policy on the interiors, and the loss assessment coverage usually covers the deductible.
What is loss assessment coverage?
Loss assessment is an additional cover that prevents a condo owner from paying out of pocket if their condo association issues a special assessment for expenses related to an insurance claim outside the walls of their unit.
For instance, if there’s a hail claim on all the roofs of the multi-family property, and it’s one and a half million dollars and there’s $5,000 per building deductible, that $5,000 portion that the owner is responsible for should be covered through loss assessment coverage. This is a game changer for condo owners, as it means that they won’t have to pay out of pocket for an unexpected loss.
When taking on these more substantial projects, Brookens says that it’s important for him to tailor the approach to meet the specific needs of the condo association.
“Every association is different,” he notes. “Some of them have a project management company that they want us to go through, while others provide us with contact info for every owner and they want us to coordinate with each of them. So we accommodate whatever they want. Communication is one of our core values, and that really comes into play when we’re working on these bigger projects,” he concludes.
To learn more about Brookens Construction and their work in multi-family roofing, visit their website today.
