Approved Roof Claim, No Signed Contract: The Step Between the Approval Letter and the Build Date

Contingency agreement and build contract: two different documents

A roofing contingency agreement and a build contract are different documents. Whatever a contingency agreement says, and whether it binds anyone, depends on its words and on state law; that is a question for the company’s attorney, and this guide does not answer it. The office question is simpler: for each approved claim, is there a signed build contract with a scope, a price and dates?

Several states spell out what a residential roofing contract on an insurance job has to carry. Three examples from public statutes read on October 17, 2026:

• Colorado. C.R.S. §6-22-103 requires a written contract, signed by both sides before any roofing work, stating at least the scope of services and materials, the approximate dates, the approximate costs based on damages known at the time, the contractor’s contact details and insurers, a rescission clause allowing the owner to rescind and get a full refund of any deposit within 72 hours after entering the contract, a statement of the rescission right in §6-22-104, and a statement that the contractor cannot pay, waive or rebate the deductible. It also requires a bold statement that payments are held in trust until materials are delivered or a majority of the work is done.
• Texas. Business and Commerce Code §27.02 requires a contract of $1,000 or more that is reasonably expected to be paid from a property insurance claim to carry a set notice, in at least 12-point bold type, that Texas law requires the insured to pay any applicable deductible.
• Florida. Under §489.147, a contractor may not give an insured an agreement authorizing repairs without a good faith estimate of the itemized and detailed cost of services and materials; a roof contract must include a notice that the contractor may not offer a deductible waiver or other inducement for an inspection or a claim, or the owner may void it within 10 days; and a residential roof contract must carry a bold notice advising the owner to contact the insurer to verify coverage before signing.

Minnesota’s §325E.66 also requires a good faith itemized estimate with any repair agreement on an insurance job. The practical step is one contract template per state the company works in, reviewed by its attorney, so the rep never builds a contract at the kitchen table.

The cancellation windows to put on the calendar

A signed contract is not yet a scheduled job. Federal and state rules give homeowners time to cancel, and the office needs the date each window closes for each job. Whether a given sale falls under a rule is a legal question for your construction attorney.

• The FTC Cooling-Off Rule (16 CFR Part 429). For a covered sale of consumer goods or services of $25 or more made at the buyer’s home, the seller must give the buyer written notice of the right to cancel “at any time prior to midnight of the third business day after the date of this transaction,” with a notice-of-cancellation form. A business day is any calendar day except Sunday and federal holidays. The rule lists exclusions, including some buyer-initiated repair visits and a bona fide emergency where the buyer signs a handwritten waiver.
• Florida, after a declared emergency. Under §489.147(6), if a roof contract is signed within 180 days of events that are the subject of a governor’s state-of-emergency declaration, for a property inside the declared area, the owner may cancel within 10 days after signing or by the official start date, whichever comes first, and the contract must say so in bold 14-point type before the owner’s signature.
• Colorado, twice. Besides the 72 hours after entering the contract, §6-22-104 lets an owner whose roofing work is to be paid from insurance proceeds rescind within 72 hours after receiving the insurer’s written notice that the claim is denied in whole or in part. The contractor must return payments within 10 days and may keep only an amount for work actually performed.

The office’s part: record the signing date, compute the date each window closes, and put both on the job. Scheduling, material orders and deposits should follow the company’s written rule for the window — a rule its attorney has read. Not legal advice.

Give the approval step an owner and a date

None of this needs new software. It needs one stage, one owner and one rule for how long a job may sit in that stage.

• When the approval letter arrives, the job moves to a stage such as “Approved — not signed,” with the rep’s name and a contract meeting date set the same day.
• The contract meeting brings the state’s contract template, the carrier’s scope and a proposed build date, so the homeowner sees when the roof goes on, not only what it costs.
• If the meeting does not happen by its date, the job goes on a weekly list read aloud by name, with the age of each approval in days.
• A job lost after approval gets a reason: price, another roofer the homeowner knew, no contact after approval, a timing problem, or no reason recorded.

The homeowner may still choose someone else. The point of the stage is that the company knows which approvals were lost on price, which on timing, and which were never followed up at all — and only the last one is entirely within the office’s control.

Count approved claims that never became signed jobs

The count needs one export: every insurance job that reached approval in the last twelve months, with the approval date, the contract signing date if there is one, the build date, and the stage it sits in today. Then add columns by hand.

• Days from approval to signed contract, for every signed job.
• Every approved claim with no signed contract, its age in days and its approved amount.
• Every approval lost to another contractor, with the reason, if one was recorded.
• An owner and a next date for each open line.

Illustrative example: in one season, a company sees 80 claims approved. Sixty-two are signed within a week. Ten went to another roofer: four on price, three to a roofer the homeowner already knew, three with no contact after approval. Eight are still open with no next date. At an illustrative $15,000 a roof, the eight open approvals are $120,000 of work with nobody assigned to it, and the three no-contact losses were $45,000 lost in the same gap.

What the office must never do in the gap

The pressure to hold on to an approved claim can push a rep toward steps the law forbids. These stay off the table, in every state the company works in.

• Never offer to pay, waive, absorb or rebate a deductible. Texas (§27.02), Florida (§489.147), Colorado (§6-22-105) and Minnesota (§325E.66) all prohibit it.
• Never negotiate the claim, interpret the policy or advise on coverage for the homeowner. The Texas Department of Insurance says a roofer or contractor may not act as a public adjuster on a claim if it is also doing the work; Colorado’s §6-22-105 bars a roofing contractor from claiming to be or acting as a public adjuster, and Florida’s §489.147(2)(d) and Minnesota’s §325E.66 bar interpreting the policy or adjusting the claim unless the contractor is a licensed public adjuster.
• Never treat a signature as sold before its cancellation window closes, or talk a homeowner out of a right the contract has to state.

When to fix it in-house, and when not to hire anyone

The stage, the meeting rule, the state templates and the weekly list are in-house work: an afternoon with the CRM and an hour with the company’s attorney. A company where approvals turn into signed contracts within days, and every lost approval carries a reason, does not need outside help with this step.

It is worth a second look from a roofing business consultant when the open list keeps growing, when “no contact after approval” is a common reason, or when approvals that slip sit next to other gaps: finished roofs with no certificate of completion sent, depreciation never requested, two-party checks waiting on a mortgage company. The Revenue Review is a read-only engagement of two weeks. It reads the roofing CRM against QuickBooks and the supplement log, measures the days between approval and signature for every claim, and puts a monthly dollar figure on each gap, with a written report and a 90-day plan. It gives no legal advice and never contacts carriers, adjusters or homeowners. A free 20-minute call is enough to tell whether a Review fits.