This beautiful campus was damaged by hail and entered into appraisal. The real interesting portion of the claim, from my perspective as umpire, was how different the hail and wind affected the two buildings.
Complete was called out to review the damages to the church in the appraisal process where I was agreed to as umpire by both appraisers appointed to the accompanying lawsuit. One of the benefits of providing appraisal services in Colorado is that the Colorado Dept of Regulatory Agencies (DORA) governs the process with the Uniform Arbitration Act, §13-22-201 et seq., and in particular, §13-22-211 (2). This code calls for appraisers to be independent and competent and the umpire to be unbiased. This, and a little luck, and we might get some work done! I love working in sate with rules — it keeps out the riff-raff.
The high school was top-notch construction: first-class materials and less than five years since commissioning. The high school being of recent construction looked like the day it was built. Hail resistant coverings and thicker gauge materials are making a huge difference when it comes to resiliency during a hail storm. In heavier storms with both elevated wind speed and larger size of hail, it is not going to make a difference, especially in the most severe conditions. But in a severe (but not horrific) hail storm newer, better-built materials and techniques are going to make a huge difference.
The other was a converted 35-year-old shopping plaza. The shopping plaza portion was, I am sure, serving its purpose as a building but a nudge by Mother Nature and then Katy bar the door. The storm blew a 2,000–4,000 s.f. section of the roof up allowing wind to enter under the membrane and tearing the seams, allowing water into the building. We had 39 air conditioners circa 1983 that looked like they had been through a slingshot competition between 20 12-year-old kids.
Looking at the damage it was obvious that some of it was recent but some of this damage was occurring over the last three decades. Putting a value on that type of damage requires careful attention to the most cost-effective and appropriate-to-the-damages fix. Does the entire unit require replacement as a result of that damage? If the unit is on the edge of being obsolete, is it still working, and is the efficiency diminished? These are the challenges of an appraisal, especially in the west where buildings are going to get hail storms periodically the way hurricanes come to the Gulf and Eastern coastlines. The schools had a certain amount of interior damage and we were able to get agreement on these prices without too much difficulty through these photos:
