The business model, so you recognize it mid-pitch
Storm-chasing is a real industry with a real playbook. Crews follow hail and wind maps across states, blanket damaged zip codes within days, and run the same sequence house by house. The Illinois Attorney General’s description of the pattern: unsolicited door-to-door sellers “with no local connections” offering repairs “for substantially less than market price,” demanding cash or full payment upfront — concentrated exactly where a storm just hit.
The sequence at your door:
- The free inspection. Kind offer, zero risk, he’s “doing your neighbor’s place anyway.”
- The discovery. Damage you can’t verify without climbing up yourself. Sometimes real. Sometimes stock photos. Sometimes made fresh with a boot and a pry bar.
- The urgency. Insurance deadline, material prices, “my crew’s in the area this week only.” Every version means the same thing: don’t compare, don’t check, sign now.
- The extraction. A fat deposit (the III documents the vanish-after-deposit scheme as a disaster-zone staple) — or worse, the paper that says Assignment of Benefits.
- The exit. Best case: a rushed roof from out-of-state labor with a warranty from a company that dissolves by winter. Worst case: no roof, no deposit, no phone number.
The AOB trap deserves its own alarm
Deposits cost you money once. An Assignment of Benefits costs you the claim itself. Per the NAIC’s consumer alert: sign it, and the contractor files your claim, makes repair decisions, and collects insurance money without your involvement — your insurer now talks to them, not you, and you can lose rights like mediation along the way. Florida ran this experiment at scale: solicited AOBs, inflated scopes, tens of thousands of lawsuits, and what the III called a hidden tax on every policyholder in the state.
You are never required to sign an AOB to have repairs done. Any pitch that requires one is telling you who the customer really is — and it isn’t you.
The boring process that wins
Real storm damage deserves real repair — through a sequence with no step a scammer survives:
- Your own photos, from the ground, the day of the storm: roof lines, downed shingles in the yard, dents in gutters and AC fins. Tarping active leaks is emergency mitigation — always allowed, keep receipts (the water pages cover the interior side).
- Claims line, then the adjuster. The insurer’s inspection establishes covered scope. If you want damage verified independently first — say, a knocker claims damage you can’t see — an independent roof inspection is $307–$571 from someone with no roof to sell.
- Three written bids on the same scope, from established local companies — physical address, years of local work, references you actually call. Every consumer authority lands on the same number: three. Comparison is the disinfectant.
- Contract in writing (Illinois requires it above $1,000; treat that as the floor anywhere) with scope, materials, schedule, and payment stages tied to completed work.
- Deposit discipline. California’s statutory cap — 10% or $1,000, whichever is less — is the benchmark. Check or card, never cash, never large, never before materials arrive.
Honest numbers to bid against: leak repairs $350–$1,500; asphalt replacement on a typical home $6,000–$10,000; the national all-material replacement range $7,500–$14,000. A door price dramatically under these isn’t a discount — it’s the entry fee to the playbook above. Full vetting checklist, five minutes flat: how to vet a contractor.
If you’re reading this too late
Deposit gone, or a signed AOB regretted: move today, not Monday. Door-to-door contracts carry short cancellation windows — commonly three business days, longer for seniors in some states — so send written cancellation immediately with proof of delivery. Then the state attorney general’s consumer protection office: post-storm home repair fraud is a priority pattern they prosecute, and your report joins the map that catches the crew before the next zip code. Card payments: dispute with your issuer. And tell your insurer — an AOB-armed contractor billing your claim is something they want to know about early.