Florida & Texas
Call the roofer or the insurance company first?
The order matters more than people think. Here's the sequence that protects your claim and your record.
Short answer: roofer first, but not any roofer
Filing a claim creates a record whether it pays or not. If a roofer inspects first and finds damage below your deductible, you've saved a claim on your history. If they find a full replacement, you file with photos already in hand — dated before the adjuster's visit.
The exception is active water intrusion: tarp it (that's mitigation, and the policy expects it), photograph everything, and then get the inspection.
What 'inspect first' should look like
Every slope photographed, hail or wind damage marked, a count per test square in Texas, and a written summary. If the roofer can't produce that, they're not the one to bring to the adjuster meeting.
What not to sign
Nothing that assigns the claim to the roofer, nothing that obligates you to use them if the claim pays, and nothing before the scope is written. In Florida, assignment-of-benefits agreements for new policies were ended by the 2022 reforms; in Texas, contingency agreements are legal but you don't need one to get an inspection.