Winter Springs Roofing & Repair
by Chip Colandreo
Here in Florida, homeowner’s insurance rates are skyrocketing, and insurance companies are fleeing the state in droves. The reason is simple, but it’s not right under your nose... it’s actually right over your head.
It’s your roof. Or, more accurately, the complicated web of insurance fraud wrought by unscrupulous, fly-by-night roofing companies. The good news is, you have the power to fight the fraud and reverse this trend that is costing Florida homeowners billions. All you have to do is hire the right roofer when your roof needs legitimate repair or replacement. And here in Seminole County, you don’t have to look far to find the most reputable roofer in the region. It’s Winter Springs Roofing with a 40-year legacy of honest service.
According to Florida’s Office of Insurance Regulation, only nine percent of homeowner’s insurance claims originate in Florida but a full 79 percent of homeowner’s insurance lawsuits come from The Sunshine State. Most of those lawsuits are fraudulent roofing claims. Here’s how the scam works: Illegitimate roofers canvas neighborhoods offering free roof inspections or advertise easy roofing claims. They hop on the roof and inevitably find damage (usually when there is none), they file fraudulent insurance claims, and then sue the insurance company when its own inspectors dispute the bogus claims. The insurance company either has to pay to litigate, pay to settle, or pay the bogus claim and let the roofer collect thousands of dollars to perform no actual repair work. As fast as insurance companies are leaving Florida, new roofing companies are popping up like weeds to perpetuate the scam.
Go With Who You Know
“The easiest and fastest way to tell if a roofer is legitimate is to find out how long they’ve been in business,” says Bill Sumner, owner/operator of Winter Springs Roofing who’s been installing, fixing, and replacing roofs in Central Florida since 1983. “If the company has been in business a short time – often a year or less – that’s the #1 sign that something’s not right.”
Finding this information is simple. You can always ask the roofer, (fair warning, though – dishonest roofers are often dishonest, so you may not get a truthful answer). It’s faster, easier, and more reliable to simply visit BBB.org, the Better Business Bureau website. If a roofer is not BBB Accredited, that’s all the info you need. Whether it’s accredited or not, the business’s BBB listing will also show how long that business has been in operation. Winter Springs Roofing’s listing proudly shows 37 years in business. A quick search of several other Central Florida roofers returns many incorporation dates in 2022, a cause for serious alarm.
“It’s heartbreaking that my industry has become the battleground for this kind of fraud, but all I can do is what I’ve been doing for nearly 40 years – provide the best, high-quality work, treat my customers honestly and fairly, and when an insurance claim is necessary, make sure that claim is equally honest and fair,” Bill says. “That creates the best outcome for my customers, for the roofing industry, and for the entire state of Florida.”
Much of Bill’s work is actually fixing other roofer’s shoddy installations and repairs. The homeowner has usually tried to call the original roofer back to do the job right, but Bill hears the same outcome again and again: the original roofer is out of business and whatever warranty they promised for their sub-standard work is worthless.
And regarding the too-good-to-be-true ads, the door-to-door inspection offers, and the out-of-control lawsuits...
“Legislation is currently in the works to hopefully curb some of it,” says Bill, “but every homeowner in Florida has the power to stop it right now. Don’t fall for the scams. Hire a roofer you know and trust. We’ve been working hard to earn that trust for four decades, and we don’t plan to stop anytime soon.”