When the Sky Cracks Open: A Community Manager's First-30-Days Playbook for Hail and Storm Insurance Claim Projects
To the community managers reading this — I know your week. Hail tears through the Front Range, and within an hour your inbox is full: a board president who just watched his garage door get hammered, a homeowner whose skylight is leaking onto the dining room table, the regional VP asking for a status update, and three contractors who somehow already know about your storm.
You are the one everyone is going to look to first. The boards will eventually vote, but you set the tempo, you frame the recommendation, and you decide which contractors even get through the door. Get the first 30 days right and the project runs itself. Get them wrong and you'll be living inside this claim for two years.
An insurance claim project is a different animal than the capital projects this newsletter usually covers. The rules around bidding, payment, scope, and timing are not the same — and managers who default to their normal RFP and bid leveling muscle memory often get burned, and the boards relying on them get burned too.
Here is a 30-day playbook to help you steer the community to the right side of the deal.
1. Hold the line: nothing gets signed in the first 72 hours
The morning after a storm, contractors in logo'd trucks will show up uninvited. Some are reputable local firms working the neighborhood. Many are storm chasers from three states over, and they're not here to make friends. A few will go around you and knock on board members' doors directly.
The contract they hand the board president is often an Assignment of Benefits or a contingency agreement that lets them deal directly with the carrier on the HOA's behalf. Once signed, it can be very difficult to unwind. Communities get locked into contractors no one properly vetted because someone signed a clipboard on day one — and the manager gets to clean it up.
Get out in front of it. The first email you send the board after the storm should say, in plain language: "Please don't sign anything a contractor hands you for the next 72 hours. Forward everything to me." That single sentence will save you more headaches than anything else in this article. Call the carrier first, loop in the management company's risk team, and let the contractor conversation come third.
2. The insurer's scope of loss is a starting point, not the deal
Once the carrier's adjuster inspects, they'll issue a scope of loss with a dollar figure attached. Boards see that number land in their inbox and assume it's final. Part of your job is to tell them — calmly, in writing — that it isn't.
A few terms to put in front of the board so they don't anchor on the wrong number:
ACV (Actual Cash Value) — the depreciated value of the damaged property. This is usually what the insurer pays first.
RCV (Replacement Cost Value) — the full cost to replace. The difference between ACV and RCV is the recoverable depreciation, and it's released after the work is completed and documented.
Supplement — a formal request to the insurer to add or revise line items they missed (ridge cap, ice-and-water shield, code-required upgrades, paint to match, accessory replacements). A competent GC or owner's rep will almost always find legitimate supplements on a complex multi-building claim.
If the community accepts the first scope without review, they are very likely leaving money on the table — money the HOA will end up paying out of reserves and that you will be answering questions about at the next annual meeting.
3. Run a real procurement, even on a compressed clock
This is the step boards push back on hardest under time pressure, and it's the most expensive mistake on the list. Your job is to hold the line.
Insurance jobs deserve the same discipline as any other capital project: a real RFP, real bid leveling, real reference checks, real license and insurance verification, and a real intangibles review. The storm-chaser shortcut — "they're already on-site, let's just go" — is how communities end up with abandoned jobs, mechanic's liens from unpaid subs, and pallets of shingles sitting in the parking lot for six months.
Yes, the clock is real. You can still run a tight, compressed RFP in a week or two — pre-qualified bidder lists exist for exactly this reason, and if your management company doesn't have one for hail-belt trades, this is the moment to build it. Present the board with a leveled comparison, not a single contractor and a "we have to move now" pitch. They will follow your lead.
4. Walk the board through the money path before the first check is cut
Insurance claim money flows differently than reserve money, and most board members have never seen it work. A 10-minute explanation in your next board meeting is worth more than a 40-page management report. Three things to put in front of them:
The deductible is the HOA's. A contractor who offers to "waive" or "eat" the deductible is asking the community to participate in insurance fraud, which is a felony in Colorado and most other states. That bid goes in the trash, and the contractor goes off your list.
The mortgagee is often on the check. If any of the community's structures carry a master policy with a lender named as mortgagee, the insurance check will list both the HOA and the lender as payees, and the lender will release funds in draws as work is verified. Plan for this — it affects cash flow, pay app timing, and the board's expectations.
Recoverable depreciation comes last. The insurer releases it only after you submit proof the work was actually completed. No completion documentation, no depreciation check. The project documentation discipline you and the GC put in place during the job is what unlocks that final payment.
5. Build a claim file the adjuster can't pick apart
The strongest claim files I've seen — the ones that get supplements paid without a fight — all share three layers of documentation, and the manager is usually the one who owns them:
Pre-storm baseline photos — taken during routine inspections, before any damage. Most communities don't have these, and the manager wishes they did the moment a claim is denied as "pre-existing." If you manage multiple HOAs in hail country, a quarterly baseline walk is the single best risk-reduction habit you can build. Hire a reputable owner's rep to take drone photos annually. This small cost can make a huge difference.
Claim-day photos — wide context shots, close-ups of damage, date-stamped, organized by building and elevation. Standardize the naming convention up front so the GC and the adjuster are working from the same map.
In-progress and completion photos — every phase of the work, every elevation, every supplement item installed.
This is the same documentation discipline that pays off on any project, but on an insurance claim it's the difference between a paid supplement and a denied one — and it's the file you'll be glad you have when the next manager inherits this community two years from now.
6. Own the deadlines the insurer is running
Insurance policies and state law impose deadlines that communities routinely miss — and when they get missed, the manager is the one who has to explain it. A few to track from day one:
A statute of limitations on filing suit if the claim is denied or shorted. The window varies by state and policy language, and many policies tighten it further by contract — confirm the deadline with the HOA's attorney the day the claim is opened, not the day before it expires.
A supplement window — usually tied to when the work is completed, not when the storm hit.
Code upgrade coverage that often requires a separate trigger and documentation.
Communities lose money by missing dates more than by negotiating poorly. Put the deadlines on your calendar the moment the claim is opened, copy the board so they can see them, and treat them like any other critical path item.
Storm projects feel urgent — and they are — but the communities that come out of them whole are the ones whose managers resist the urge to skip steps and whose boards trust them enough to follow. The 30 days after the storm decide whether the insurance check actually covers the project, or whether the community pays the difference for the next decade.
Next up: "Or Equal" Is Not Equal — How to Handle Contractor Product Substitutions Without Getting a Cheaper Project Than You Paid For.
Sean Davis, PMP | Civil Engineer | Current HOA Board Member (12 years) | DHA Construction Management | Broomfield, CO
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