An insurance policy is a contract between the insurer and policyholder. That contract acts as a form of protection. Your roof warranty acts in much the same way as an insurance policy. It’s a contract between the warrantor and the building Owner and it’s a way to help protect your investment. But much like insurance policies, warranties can be difficult for Owners to understand and to be sure they’re meeting the obligations to keep the warranty valid.

A Brief History

Initially, commercial roofing projects were backed by bonds. A roof bond was essentially an agreement by the surety, typically an insurance company, to cover the cost of specified remedies up to the fixed amount of the bond. If repairs exceeded this value, Owners had to make up the difference. Modern day roof warranties came onto the scene in the 1970s and in subsequent decades the warranty coverage periods extended to longer terms. Unfortunately, even fifty years later there remains a lot of confusion around the terms of warranties.

Types of Roof Warranties

Commercial roofs can have multiple warranties. There are roofing manufacturer warranties and roofing installer warranties (also sometimes called a workmanship or contractor warranty). The contractor warranty typically guarantees the labor or installation of a roof or roof system for a certain timeframe whereas, the manufacturer warranty is a written guarantee on the materials. This written guarantee ensures that the manufacturer will take responsibility within a certain timeframe to repair or replace their product. However, there are often stipulations to keep the warranty valid, such as performing regular maintenance. Roof warranties can be standard or extended. Commercial roof warranties typically last anywhere from 10-25 years. As you can see, depending on the number of roofs in your building portfolio, the number of warranties can quickly add up.

Pain Point

Building owners can jeopardize their roof integrity and potentially lose funding options if their warranties are not managed correctly. Warranties can get lost or neglected because Owners don’t necessarily understand their obligations and requirements. As previously mentioned, sometimes warranties require periodic upkeep and basic maintenance that can extend the life of a roof system by 25-50% of its projected lifespan. Often times an Owner can lose leverage if roof repairs are needed early but the owner has let the contractor warranty expire. These are potentially cost-free repairs that are often lost with poor warranty management.

Roof Warranty Management Easy

At Technical Assurance, our mission is building lifelong relationships through personal service to our clients. We want to be your partner for total roof system management. Our team of highly trained roof specialists deliver comprehensive solutions, including the management of your roofing warranties.

We can make roof warranty management easy:

• Our team of experts can store your roof warranty records in the cloud using our ON-PNT® Enterprise Building System Management.
• You can receive time-sensitive notifications when contractor or manufacturer’s warranty terms are upcoming or expiring.
• Our team of experts will review your warranty terms and obligations with you before they expire to help provide insights and direct decision-making.
• If you have multiple properties, Technical Assurance can offer GIS map locations showing visual representations of your building portfolio utilizing ON-PNT®.

We can assess your roofs before the warranty expiration to determine what needs to be done and provide a report outlining the work that’s necessary to bring your roofs up to a passable grade. This can then be used to negotiate with contractors for repairs under the contractor warranty or with manufacturers who might have material issues that have been neglected. In the end, no one wants to get into difficult situations that could have been avoided through proper roof warranty management. We can work together to protect your building portfolio assets well into the future.

Contact Us Today!

Technical Assurance can help you take a simplified, programmatic approach to managing your buildings’ roof portfolio. Contact us today for a consultation and assure that your investment lasts.

SOURCES

• https://www.benchmark-inc.com/resources/results/2021/08/30/commercial-roof-warranties-installment-1-3-warranty-101
• https://www.jsmuckercontracting.com/a-guide-to-commercial-roofing-warranties/
• https://msrs.com/legality-and-warranties/commercial-roof-warranties/
• https://www.owenscorning.com/en-us/roofing/blog/roofing-warranties-explained