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Technically, the insurance company is NOT liable to pay for undamaged windows and/or the garage door; the policy is a damage policy, and only items damaged by a named peril are required to be paid, regardless (sadly) of what you consider to be a "matching" issue. Some companies are more lenient than others and may consider a request to replace additional undamaged items (re: wrapping the entire siding on your neighbor's house), but there is no obligation on their part. The fact that items/materials go out of style or are no longer manufactured is a constant in the construction industry and is nugatory to the insurance company. Can't hurt to ask, but please be prepared for a negative response.

Thank you for the insight.  So, who should  we talk with at the insurance company to ask them to reconsider and authorize full replacement?

Our local agent?  The inspector who made the recommendation?  Or someone else up the "food chain"?

Appreciate your help.

You should start with the immediate supervisor of the person who did the inspection.  Many window manufacturers recommend replacement if the casing/wrap is damaged by hail because of the effect it has on the life of the window, and therefore the lifetime warranties.

The prior answer you received regarding matching is correct, although every state is different as far as exact policy language.  For example, I've done a great deal of work in Minnesota, where if you cannot match an item such as siding, the entire house must be re-sided.  There way be some wording your policy which would trigger some coverage in your instance.

Mickey McCully

I dont think it is wise to advise an insured that a policy or carrier maybe flexible.The adjuster did his job within the guidelines of the policy.The insured should read and understand their policy.If you lived in a poor neighborhood would their be a difference?

Based on your info, your neighbor's siding was damaged on two sides, whereas your windows were only damaged on one side.  In SOME areas, a percentage of damaged area can trigger full replacement.  Your neighbor had a greater percentage of siding damaged than you had window damage.  Also, based on your info, your neighbor has a completely different policy than you.  Not fair to compare apples to oranges.

Not knowing what state your loss occurred in...I don't think it matters.  Your adjuster was likely correct in his assessement of allowing to replace just the damaged windows with a reasonable like-kind quality.  Windows are individual components vs. siding such as your neighbor's loss.  The siding "as a whole" is a component, and while some states will mandate all 4 or more walls of siding if a "reasonable" match cannot be obtained, windows are a different story....along with the garage door.   And it has to be due to a qualifying cause of loss.  If the neighbor's kid hits a baseball & cracks one panel of your 15 year old obsolete vinyl siding... well, I hope you have a small detached garage or storage shed with the same material, so you can put in a patch on the house.   And then put the cracked piece on the shed out of site.  Because the neighbor's carrier is going to owe you ACV on the one panel, and your own HO carrier is going to owe you RC on maybe the one panel, or just the one elevation if they feel sorry for you.

A word of advice to anyone putting vinyl siding on....buy a couple extra boxes for future repairs, as the styles/sizes/colors change about every 4 years.  When you throw up that rock from the lawn mower, or the grill gets a little too close, whatever...you can avoid a big headache for the price of about $200 ahead of time.  Put it in the attic, peel out the old & snap in the new when it happens.

 

While I understand your concern about housing values on something as valuable as your house, this is really not the purpose of the insurance policy. It was never intended to ensure that your house would not lose value. As stated above, your policy is almost certainly a damage policy. One of the first lines probably says "We will pay for direct physical damage.....". Matching is made to a reasonable line of sight. This does not include wrapping around the house. Secondly, a reasonable match is likely to be easier than your contractor (whose interests are not the same as yours; he/she wants to sell you something that will cost you money directly or indirectly) will lead you to believe. If you do not believe this, do a simple experiment. Stand at the corner of your house looking at two sides at once. Stand at any distance at any time of the day. The siding will be two different shades of the same color. Light will always fall differently on two different sides of the house. This will always make the two sides look like they are a slightly different shade. It is only our brain that interprets the shading to be the same despite our eye telling us that it is different.
One final consideration: when you sit down to write your next insurance premium check, do you want to be writing it to a company who paid for all the siding on all the houses of all the policyholders who had a claim last year and is passing the costs on to you? Or do you want to pay it to a company who kept their costs in check and only paid what they owed and is passing the savings on to you?

Now Steve I know you  as well as I have supervised catastrophe adjusters who have several years  storm experience that will disagree with you. This is in regards to wrapping the entire house or a similar "direct" loss matters.

Can you think of a softer landing answer to:" thats not the way I was trained", other than, "well you were trained wrong".

Re-siding the entire house will be required in certain states, even if just one elevation is damaged.  Missouri comes to mind.  The "reasonable match" still plays, but when you have hail damage to 8" aluminum siding or even straight 8" vinyl siding that was installed in the 70's or 80's...there is no reasonable match to be found.  There are even some newer vinyl sidings by mfrs that went out of business that cannot be matched "reasonably".  By newer, I mean 10-15 years old, compared to the prior example.  Sometimes though you can settle with reasonable insureds when there is a detached garage with the same material as the dwelling.  Siding panels can be moved to the one damaged elevation on the dwelling, and you simply agree to re-do the entire detached garage with new siding.   

 

 

 

The questions about siding repair vs replacement should not be answered without knowing the State of residence and the policy provisions. This is why the homeowners get confused when adjustors give mis information.

As to the windows, if your policy is a standard HO damage type, the insurance carrier is obligated to indemnify you for damaged property only.  State mandated matching policies can supercede that although I have never seen it apply to windows.  In regard to the siding replacement stockpile suggestion, that will work for the first 2-3 years after the initial installation.  After that, even the exact same siding in your storage area will not match exactly especially on the west and east elevations of the dwelling due to sun fading.  Based on dealing with hundreds of frustrated homeowners faced with agonizing matching issues, I recommend brick.