wrote in message
...
Hi,

I had the roof of my house replaced by a construction company due to
hail damage. The damage was covered by my home insurance policy less
the deductible.

6 months later I have a leak in the ceiling of one of my bedrooms. We
have not settled the charges with the construction company yet, as my
mortgage company needs to get involved in endorsing the checks from my
insurance company and this has taken time.

Do I inform the mortgage company of the leaks in the ceiling? Is
there any value in letting the mortgage company know of this issue?

Any insight would be appreciated.

Document, document, document.

The obvious question, have you called the contractor and told him? Maybe it
was a falling limb, some wind damage or a frozen turd from a passing jet
liner that caused the new leak. It is possible he did his work, and this is
actually new damage. Have him state what the problem is and what it will
cost to fix it. If it IS his bad work, he's going to want to fix it and get
paid. If it's new damage, he's going to want to document it and show he did
his job and something new happened.

Write registered letters to all involved, stating that the roof is still
leaking. That way, the roofer can't say that you didn't tell him. The
insurance company is aware that the roof is not fixed and therefore the
fixer should not be paid until the roof doesn't leak. And the mortgage
company knows that there is a yet unidentified issue because the contractor
can file a lien for nonpayment with the mortgage company. (His story is
that he did work and you were a deadbeat and didn't pay the bill.) (Or he
can say he fixed the old damage, and this is new, and has nothing to do with
the old.) And he might be right. So give him a chance to make it right, or
find the problem. If he stalls, you might also tell the contractor that you
are confused as to what to do, and are thinking of just calling the State
Contractor Board and letting them straighten it all out. Try to get all
interested parties involved so that they can establish who is responsible
for what. The contractor wants to get paid. The insurance company wants to
stamp the file CLOSED. The mortgage company wants no liens. You want your
roof fixed. Sounds like everyone is headed to the same destination.

HTH

Steve