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How Do I Spot AStorm Chaser Roofer?

Best Roofers Ranked says a storm chaser is a roofer who arrives after a hailstorm and may be gone before your warranty matters. The tells are a pressured sale and no local record, and the BBB file, review history and permit record settle it in an evening.

After a hailstorm, a stranger at your door offers a free inspection. Sometimes that is a local roofer working a neighborhood. Sometimes it is a crew that will be gone before your warranty matters. These are the tells that separate the two, and the records that settle it in one evening.

By Aaron Whittaker, site owner & editor. . How we research and rank: methodology.

What Is A Storm Chaser Roofer?

A storm chaser is a contractor who travels to a storm-hit area, works it hard for a season and leaves. The Texas Department of Insurance describes the pattern plainly: out-of-town scam artists may be the first to arrive at your door after a disaster. The harm is not the travel. The harm is that a company with no local address, no history and no reason to stay has nothing to lose when the workmanship fails.

The test is accountability, not geography. Can you find the company next spring, at an address, under the same name? If yes, it behaves like a local roofer, wherever it started.

What Are The Door-Knock Tells?

  • An unsolicited offer to inspect or repair your roof, which the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety tells homeowners to avoid
  • A request for credit card or bank details at the door, which the Texas Department of Insurance says not to give
  • A claim that the damage is obvious from the street, before anyone has been on the roof
  • Pressure to decide today, because the crew is "only here this week"
  • An unwillingness to show a local address, a phone that rings in your area or references

None of these proves a scam alone. Together they describe a sales process built for speed, and speed favors the seller. Slow it down. A real roofer can wait a day.

A sale made at your door also carries a cancellation right the seller may not mention. The federal Cooling-Off Rule covers a sale of consumer goods or services at your home when the seller solicits it in person, and it requires a written notice saying you may cancel before midnight of the third business day after the sale (16 CFR part 429). The definition counts a solicitation made in response to or following an invitation by the buyer, so answering a knock and calling a roofer both start inside the rule. The rule lists specific exclusions, among them a repair of the buyer's personal property that the buyer asked the seller to visit and perform, and a personal emergency where the buyer hands the seller a separate dated and signed statement in the buyer's own handwriting waiving the right to cancel. A separate section exempts vehicle sales at auctions or tent sales. The rule's text does not say whether a roof counts as personal property. Where the buyer asked for one repair and the seller sells more during that visit, the extra work stays inside the rule.

What Do The Contract Tells Look Like?

The Texas Department of Insurance lists the contract tricks by name. Each one is about how a document is written, so they apply anywhere.

  • A form you must sign before anyone goes on your roof, called an estimate or a release but written as a contract
  • A contract with blank sections, which can be filled in later with higher amounts or different work
  • Wording that says you agree to the repairs "for the value of insurance proceeds", which gives the contractor every dollar of the payout
  • A materials line that is vague or missing, followed by defective or lower quality material on the roof
  • A large or full down payment

The bid is the final tell, and the one that costs the most. The National Roofing Contractors Association's advice to storm-affected homeowners is direct: keep a healthy skepticism about the lowest bid, because if it sounds too good to be true it probably is. The same release says a roof system should be inspected only from ground level, since the risk of falling is too great without the proper safety systems in place, and that every roof a storm passed over should be looked at whatever it looks like from the street.

The guide to reading a roofing estimate shows what a clean one looks like line by line.

What Does An Offer To Cover My Deductible Tell Me?

It tells you the seller will break a rule to win the job. Texas Insurance Code section 707.002 says an insured person shall pay any deductible on a first-party claim. Business and Commerce Code section 27.02 makes it an offense, a Class B misdemeanor, for a seller to advertise or promise to pay, waive, absorb or rebate the deductible without the insurer's consent. The statute also requires a boldfaced deductible notice in contracts of $1,000 or more paid from claim proceeds.

The Texas Department of Insurance names the consequence for you. A contractor who waives your deductible may be sending false cost information to your insurer, which is fraud, and is likely making up the difference with cheaper product. Other states have their own versions of this law. Look yours up.

What Does A Lifetime Warranty Actually Cover?

The word lifetime is doing marketing work in that sentence. A warranty is a written document, and federal law expects it to be readable: a written warranty must disclose its terms and conditions fully and conspicuously in simple and readily understood language (15 U.S.C. 2302). If a seller will not hand you the document before you sign, you have nothing to read afterward.

Read the exclusions before the promises, because hail is often one of them. Owens Corning, which classifies some of its impact-resistant shingles under UL 2218 Class 4, says on its own class rating page that the laboratory test does not guarantee the shingle will resist all weather conditions and that hail damage is specifically excluded from coverage under the terms of its warranty. That is the manufacturer's paper. The installer separately promises its own workmanship, and that promise is worth nothing once the crew that made it has left the state.

How Do I Check A Roofer In One Evening?

  1. Confirm a local street address and a phone number that someone answers
  2. Call two or three references and ask about the finished roof, not the sales visit
  3. Search for complaints and bad reviews under the exact company name
  4. Check the BBB profile for its start date, grade and complaint history
  5. Search your city or county permit records for permits filed under the company's own name
  6. Ask your city or county whether the company is registered, where registration is required
  7. Get at least two more bids on letterhead

Years under the same name is the cheapest filter, because a storm chaser that changes its name after each season shows no history under any of them. For the metros we cover, the check-a-roofer guides in the reading list below walk through each public record with live links.

Start with the license question, because in Texas there is no state answer to it. The Roofing Contractors Association of Texas puts it plainly: anyone can call themselves a roofer in Texas, the state requires no license and no registration, and it does not ask whether the contractor carries insurance. That is why the local registration line above carries more weight here than it would in a state with its own board. Ask what your city or county requires, and ask for the number.

The BBB line deserves a second look too. Accreditation is a status a company applies for, and the BBB presents the application as a way to show customers that a company operates honestly and with integrity. It is not a license and it is not a permit, so an unaccredited company with a clean complaint file can still be the better hire. Read the complaint history, not the rating alone.

What Should I Do In The First Week After A Storm?

Document first, call second, hire third. Photograph the damage, including dents on gutters, vents and flashing, which the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety calls collateral evidence. Call your insurance agent to report it, and tarp exposed areas to prevent further water damage. Then collect written bids.

Put the insurer ahead of the repair crew in that order. The Insurance Information Institute's sequence is to report the loss, ask what the policy covers and how long the claim will take, then make only the temporary repairs that stop further damage and save every receipt, because what you spend on a tarp or a patch is part of the total settlement. It ends with the warning this guide is built around: beware of contractors who ask for a large amount of money up front and contractors whose bids are very low.

You can also check the storm itself. The Storm Prediction Center publishes daily reports of hail, wind and tornadoes by time, size, location and county, and the page marks all of them as preliminary until the reviewed record is published. If the date a seller gives you has no hail at your location in that file, ask when the damage actually happened.

Use the hail claim calculator to see whether a claim clears your deductible before you file. The Texas guidance for hail claims is in the Texas roof insurance claims guide.

Where Do I Report A Storm Chaser?

Report the sales conduct, not only the workmanship. The Texas Attorney General's consumer protection division describes its own work as accepting complaints, filing civil cases in the public interest and educating Texans on how to spot and avoid possible scams. It takes a complaint from a Texas homeowner directly, and an offer to waive your deductible belongs there as well as with your insurer.

Outside Texas, a complaint usually goes to a state regulator rather than a federal one. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners publishes a directory of state insurance departments with contact information for each, and that is also where a complaint about how an insurer handled the claim is filed.

Keep your own file in either case: the signed contract, the bids you turned down, the adjuster's report and the photos from before the work started. A complaint is easier to act on with dates attached.

When Does This Advice Not Apply?

It is a screen, not a verdict, and it misses real cases.

  • A local company canvassing its own neighborhood after a storm is allowed to knock on doors, and many are honest
  • An out-of-area company with a real office, a license where your state requires one and a long record can be a good hire
  • A bad roofer can be local, with a clean address and a name you know
  • An insurer's recommended contractor is a starting point, not a guarantee
  • The law cited here is Texas law, so your state may add rules or lack them

A ranking, including ours, narrows the field and does not guarantee a result. Check the records yourself, and keep the contract short and complete.

What Else Do Homeowners Ask About Storm Chasers?

How do I know if a roofing company is legit?
Open records you can verify yourself. Confirm a local address and phone, call references, look for complaints and bad reviews, and check whether the company pulls permits under its own name. The Texas Department of Insurance says to use local companies, get bids in writing and be wary of contractors who go door to door.
Which roofing companies are BBB accredited?
Accreditation is something a company applies for and the BBB reviews. It is not a license and an unaccredited company can still have a clean record. Each company page on this site links to the BBB profile we checked. A company with no BBB history under its current name leaves you little to check.
Do I need a permit to replace a roof and how much is it?
A full replacement usually needs one, and the fee is set locally. Ask who pulls it, since a legitimate roofer normally does, and ask for the permit number before final payment. The sourced local re-roof permit fees for the metros we cover are on the cost pages in the reading list below.
Who are the best hail damage roof repair companies?
Local roofers you can verify, with a history under the same name, a written warranty and a bid that names its materials. Our rankings research roofers metro by metro with every fact linked to its source, and the check-a-roofer guides in the reading list below show the public records to open yourself.
Is it legal for a roofer to waive my insurance deductible?
In Texas, no. A section of the Business & Commerce Code makes it a Class B misdemeanor for a seller to advertise or promise to waive, absorb or rebate an insured's deductible without the insurer's consent, and Insurance Code chapter 707 says the insured shall pay it. Other states have their own rules, so ask your state insurance department.
Why is a deductible waiver a warning sign beyond the law?
The Texas Department of Insurance says a contractor can fund a waiver by giving you an estimate higher than the real cost, which sends false information to your insurer. It adds that such a contractor is likely making up the difference by cutting corners or using lower quality products. You carry the risk of both.
What should I do if a roofer asks me to sign before inspecting?
Do not sign until you have read every word. The Texas Department of Insurance warns that scammers call a contract an estimate or a release to get a signature before going on your roof. Ask for the document to be labeled as what it is, and if it is a contract, tell them you will sign after you have compared bids.
How much should I pay a roofer up front?
As little as the roofer will take. The Texas Department of Insurance says to be wary of a large or full down payment. It adds that after a declared disaster, Texas law bars out-of-town contractors from asking for a down payment before they start work. Put the payment schedule in writing.
Where do I report a roofing scam or a deductible offer?
Talk to your insurance company first. In Texas you can report a deductible waiver offer to the Attorney General's Consumer Protection Hotline at 800-621-0508, and report contractor fraud to the Texas Department of Insurance fraud unit at FraudUnit@tdi.texas.gov. Elsewhere, start with your state insurance department.
Can a roofer handle my insurance claim for me?
A roofer can inspect the roof, document the damage and give a written repair estimate. Your claim is still between you and your insurer, and your adjuster can tell you what a repair should cost. Be wary of any contractor who offers to run the claim, set your payout or keep the proceeds.

Which Guides Should I Read Next?

Where Can I Read More Or Run The Numbers?

Where Do These Facts Come From?

  1. Texas Department of Insurance, Contractor scams. https://www.tdi.texas.gov/tips/contractor-scams.html. Fetched 10 October 2026. Page last updated 12/9/2025.
  2. Texas Department of Insurance, Is it OK for a contractor to waive my deductible?. https://www.tdi.texas.gov/tips/can-a-contractor-waive-my-deductible.html. Fetched 10 October 2026.
  3. Texas Department of Insurance, Storm fraud resources. https://tdi.texas.gov/consumer/storms/fraud-resources.html. Fetched 10 October 2026. Page last updated 7/17/2026.
  4. Texas Business & Commerce Code section 27.02, text as published by Texas.Public.Law from the Texas Legislature statutes site. https://texas.public.law/statutes/tex._bus._and_com._code_section_27.02. Fetched 10 October 2026.
  5. Texas Insurance Code section 707.002, text as published by Texas.Public.Law from the Texas Legislature statutes site. https://texas.public.law/statutes/tex._ins._code_section_707.002. Fetched 10 October 2026.
  6. Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety, Is it hail damage?. https://ibhs.org/is-it-hail-damage/. Fetched 10 October 2026.
  7. 16 CFR part 429, the Cooling-Off Rule for sales made at homes, text at the Electronic Code of Federal Regulations. https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-16/chapter-I/subchapter-D/part-429. Fetched 26 October 2026. Section 429.1 requires the seller in a door-to-door sale to give the buyer a fully completed receipt or contract and, in immediate proximity to the signature space, a statement that the buyer may cancel before midnight of the third business day after the transaction.
  8. National Roofing Contractors Association, Storm damage repair caution for homeowners and business owners (July 27, 2022). https://www.nrca.net/RoofingNews/nrca-urges-homeowners-and-business-owners-affected-by-severe-weather-to-use-caution-when-repairing-their-roof-systems.7-27-2022.10442/details/story. Fetched 25 October 2026. The release says a roof system inspection should be done only from ground level, that every roof a storm passed over should be inspected whatever it looks like, and that a consumer should keep a healthy skepticism about the lowest bid.
  9. Owens Corning, Impact resistance shingles, class rating. https://www.owenscorning.com/en-us/roofing/shingle-class-rating. Fetched 25 October 2026. The page lists the products it classifies as UL 2218 Class 4 and footnotes the list to say the test results do not guarantee the shingle will resist all weather conditions, and that hail damage is specifically excluded from coverage under the shingle warranty.
  10. 15 U.S.C. 2302, rules governing contents of warranties, text at the Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute. https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/15/2302. Fetched 26 October 2026. Requires a written warranty to disclose its terms and conditions fully and conspicuously in simple and readily understood language.
  11. Roofing Contractors Association of Texas, Licensing. https://www.rcat.net/licensing.html. Fetched 10 October 2026. Used for the statement that Texas issues no state roofing license; the same page is read on each metro check-a-roofer guide.
  12. Better Business Bureau, business search. https://www.bbb.org/. Fetched 10 October 2026. A grade and complaint history for a business under its exact name. Accreditation is voluntary and is not a license.
  13. Insurance Information Institute, Settling insurance claims after a disaster. https://www.iii.org/article/settling-insurance-claims-after-a-disaster. Fetched 25 October 2026. The first steps it lists are to contact your agent or company, make temporary repairs to protect the property and save the receipts. It also warns about contractors who ask for a large amount of money up front.
  14. NOAA Storm Prediction Center, Storm reports. https://www.spc.noaa.gov/climo/reports/. Fetched 10 October 2026. Daily reports of hail, wind and tornadoes. Same-day reports are preliminary until NCEI publishes its reviewed record.
  15. Texas Attorney General, Consumer Protection. https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/consumer-protection. Fetched 26 October 2026. The division describes its work as accepting complaints, filing civil cases in the public interest and educating Texans on how to spot and avoid possible scams.
  16. National Association of Insurance Commissioners, State insurance departments. https://content.naic.org/state-insurance-departments. Fetched 25 October 2026. The directory of state insurance departments, each of which takes a complaint about an insurer. The page describes the association as supporting state insurance commissioners who regulate the industry.
  17. Best Roofers Ranked methodology. How the site researches and ranks roofers. Rates and counts on metro pages carry their own dated sources.

Sources: Where Was This Data Read?

This page cites 17 sources on 13 domains, each dated with the day we read it.

Dates For The Figures On This Page