Most hail claims do not fall apart because someone is doing their job poorly. They fall apart because almost no one involved sees the full picture. Homeowners rarely file claims and do not know what is normal. Contractors only see their portion of the process. Insurers are reviewing thousands of files at once. Somewhere between these three groups, the timeline quietly breaks down.
Before explaining where the delays happen, it is important to be clear about what HomeHudl focuses on today. HomeHudl is starting with contractor matching and neighborhood transparency because these are the two areas that make the biggest impact for homeowners at the beginning of the claim. For contractors, the early value comes from credibility and proof of work tied to real permit activity. This first step benefits both sides. A homeowner begins with someone trustworthy and a contractor begins with a foundation of verifiable work. What follows in this article is the broader reality of a hail claim and the places where time is lost without anyone meaning for it to happen.
When the Storm Passes and the Waiting Begins
When a storm hits, homeowners often wait several days or even weeks before taking action. They are unsure whether to call a contractor or their insurer first and many assume that a roof without leaks must be fine. This hesitation quietly delays everything that follows.
We broke down these early steps in more detail in our post on what to do immediately after a hailstorm.
Why the First Inspection Creates Confusion
Once a contractor finally inspects the home, the next bottleneck appears. Some contractors see damage immediately. Others believe it is borderline. Some recommend waiting for an adjuster. Homeowners have no objective standard to compare these opinions to, so they drift between perspectives long before the claim truly begins.
This is also why choosing the right contractor matters early, which we explained in our breakdown of what American Family Insurance gets right about choosing a contractor.
When the first opinion is unclear, the entire claim begins from an unclear starting point.
How Scheduling Conflicts Add More Time
After the claim is filed, adjuster availability becomes another source of waiting. During busy storm seasons, adjusters are often booked out several days. When a contractor wants to be present for the adjuster meeting, which many do because it helps reduce the number of supplements later, it adds another layer of coordination. If the contractor cannot make the adjuster's available time, the appointment might need to be pushed back. If the contractor does not attend, the adjuster may miss something that later turns into a supplement, which adds time in a different way.
Contractors often prioritize attending these meetings because it protects the homeowner and leads to a more accurate scope. Even so, the scheduling itself can slow the process.
The Quiet Pause After the Adjuster Visit
After the adjuster meeting, homeowners expect progress to speed up. Instead, many wait around seven to ten days to receive their Statement of Loss. During this period nothing moves. Contractors cannot order materials, insurers cannot finalize decisions, and homeowners cannot move forward. Everything sits quietly even though the homeowner believes progress has begun.
Where Most Claims Slow Down: The Scope Review
The single biggest slowdown happens once the Statement of Loss is issued. Contractors and insurers often write different versions of the repair plan. Waste calculations vary. Code requirements may be missing. Ventilation standards differ. Material selections do not always match. Each difference requires a supplement, which is a formal request to update or correct the estimate.
This disconnect between contractor estimates and insurer assessments has become more complicated as one company has consolidated control over the claim estimating process, creating additional friction in the supplement approval process.
Supplements are normal, but each one adds time. A single supplement extends the timeline by several days. Multiple supplements extend it by several weeks. This is the stage where most claims fall behind, even though homeowners rarely understand what is causing it.
The Mortgage Step Few Homeowners Expect
Even after all parties agree on the scope and pricing, homeowners with mortgages face another step. Insurance checks often require endorsements from the homeowner, the contractor, and the mortgage company. Sometimes the check is mailed. Sometimes the homeowner needs to visit the bank. Sometimes the mortgage company needs time to release the funds. None of this feels like part of the claim, yet it delays the build just the same.
The delay length varies, but it is almost always longer than homeowners expect.
Why the Build Feels Delayed by the Time It Begins
By the time the roof is finally scheduled, the storm feels like a distant memory. The homeowner is frustrated. The contractor's schedule is full. The insurer wonders why the claim is still open. None of this happened because anyone acted irresponsibly. It happened because the claim moved through a series of disconnected steps with no shared visibility.
In some cases, the contractor originally chosen may have even disappeared, forcing homeowners to restart the process with someone new. This is why watching out for storm chasers matters from the very beginning.
Small delays in each step become large delays when stacked together.
The Root Issue Behind These Delays
A hail claim moves from the homeowner to the contractor, then to the adjuster, then back to the insurer, then back to the contractor, then to the mortgage company, and eventually back to the contractor again. Every handoff happens without a clear view of the entire process. Each party is working in good faith, but no one sees the full path a claim must follow.
The problem is not a lack of effort. It is a lack of shared understanding.
How HomeHudl Helps Make the Process Predictable
HomeHudl's first step is fixing the beginning of the claim, where confusion usually starts. By helping homeowners find trustworthy, local contractors and showing real neighborhood permit activity, we make the starting point clear for everyone involved.
We explained how permit history works and why it matters in our post on understanding who is actually doing work in your area.
As the platform grows we are building toward tools that bring more transparency into the rest of the process. Verified profiles help homeowners understand who they are choosing. The future Property Repair Record will create a single place for a home's repair history to live. Over time, timeline insights and context will help homeowners, contractors, and insurers understand where a claim stands and what actions need to be taken next.
Information by itself does not solve the problem. People need to understand what that information means and what decisions to make because of it. The goal is to make each step clearer and easier to navigate.
The Takeaway
Most hail claims do not stall because people are doing the wrong things. They stall because no one sees the entire process at once. By beginning with contractor matching and neighborhood transparency and by building toward a more connected and understandable system over time, HomeHudl aims to make storm repairs easier for everyone involved.
Storms are unpredictable. Your claim should not be.