Free Roof Inspection STL / Filter 02
What a Missouri roofer cannot offer you
This is the most useful piece of Missouri law a homeowner in this metro can know, because two of the most attractive things said on doorsteps after a storm are things a compliant contractor is not permitted to say.
RSMo 407.725, in its own words
The section provides that a contractor shall not represent or negotiate, or offer or advertise to represent or negotiate, on behalf of an owner or possessor of real estate on any insurance claim in connection with the repair or replacement of roof systems.
Read the second half of that carefully. It is not only doing it that is barred. Offering to do it and advertising that you do it are barred as well. So a flyer, a doorstep sentence or a web page promising that a roofing company will take your claim off your hands is itself the thing the statute prohibits, before anybody has touched a claim.
A contractor is paid out of the claim. A homeowner lives with the roof. Those are not the same interest, and the legislature took the view that the person with the second interest should be the one talking to the insurer.
The deductible half of the same section
The same statute separately bars a roofing contractor from advertising or promising to pay, waive, absorb or rebate all or part of an insurance deductible. This is the one that gets tested most, because it is easy to make it sound generous rather than unlawful.
The variants are all recognisable once you know what you are listening for. A discount that happens to be the same figure as the deductible. Free upgrades in return for it. A rebate cheque afterwards. An invoice written above the real price so the gap swallows it. Any of them is the same arrangement wearing a different coat, and a contractor who offers to pay your deductible in any of those forms is doing what the section forbids.
What a contractor may do, which is quite a lot
- Inspect the roof and photograph it. No limit on that at all.
- Measure it and produce quantities.
- Write a scope of work describing what is there and what is proposed, and price it.
- Be on site as the contractor when an adjuster inspects, and point at things, and answer questions about construction, materials and method.
- Explain the trade to you, including what is normally on a scope for a roof like yours.
- Do the work and warrant its own workmanship.
That is the honest version of contractor involvement and it covers almost everything a homeowner actually needs. The line falls at representation and negotiation: a contractor may describe a roof to anybody who asks, and may not act as your agent with your insurer.
If you do want somebody acting for you
That person is a public adjuster, and it is a separate licensed profession in Missouri under chapter 325 of the statutes. A public adjuster works for the policyholder rather than for the insurer, is licensed by the state, and is the party the law contemplates when a homeowner wants representation on a claim.
Two things worth knowing before you go looking. Missouri does not cap what a public adjuster may charge, so the fee is a negotiation and you should have that conversation in writing at the start. And RSMo 325.055 bars a public adjuster from also doing the repair work, which is the mirror image of the rule that applies to contractors. The state has separated the two roles deliberately at both ends.
There is no Missouri state roofing licence
This surprises people, and it matters because it is often implied otherwise. Missouri has no statewide licence for roofing contractors. Attempts to create one have been made and have not succeeded: bills in 2016, 2019 and 2021, including SB 326, all failed to become law. Anybody citing SB 326 as a current legal requirement is citing a bill that did not pass.
What does exist is municipal. Individual cities in this metro run their own contractor registration or licensing, and Ballwin and Kirkwood are two that operate their own schemes. So the correct question is not whether a company is licensed in Missouri, because that phrase does not describe anything at state level. It is whether it is registered in the municipality where your house is, and whether it carries general liability and workers compensation insurance, which you can ask to see a certificate for.
Matching, since it always comes up
Missouri has no matching statute and no matching regulation for roofs. Whether an insurer has to make an undamaged slope match a repaired one turns on the wording of your own policy, not on a state rule. There is Missouri case law on the point, principally Alessi v. Mid-Century Ins., 464 S.W.3d 529 (Mo. App. E.D. 2015), and that is the honest citation.
What you should not accept from anybody is a flat statement that state law obliges an insurer to match. Missouri statute says no such thing, and a contractor who tells you it does is either mistaken or is using it to move a conversation along. The policy wording is where the answer lives, and reading it is a job for you, your insurer, or a professional you have chosen to advise you.
How to actually use this at the door
You now know four sentences that a compliant Missouri roofing contractor will not say to you. An offer to handle the claim. An offer about the deductible in any shape. A claim to hold a Missouri state roofing licence. A flat assertion that state law obliges an insurer to make an undamaged slope match a repaired one.
You do not need to challenge anybody. Hearing one of them is simply information about the company, and it arrives in the first two minutes, before you have committed to anything. Then go back to the only question that matters, which is on warning signs at the door: what will I be holding when you are finished, and when will I have it.