Was your roof damaged after a recent storm? Are you wondering if your home insurance covers the kind of damage it caused?
This is probably one of the biggest questions homeowners immediately ask once they find missing shingles or have people knocking on their door. Unfortunately, a roof leak doesn’t mean you automatically have roof damage.
So, you need to do some detective work to determine if it’s worth filing a claim. The best place to start is by simply learning the kind of roof damage insurance covers.
For over 30 years, Bill Ragan Roofing has taken pride in guiding homeowners through the complex world of roof damage insurance claims. So, let’s break down what’s covered, how to identify if your roof has it, and much more.
By the end of this article, you’ll learn:
Insurance will cover roof damage caused by an extreme weather event or another covered peril, mainly straight-line winds (aka damaging winds) and hail. You just need to check your insurance policy to learn the specific type of damage covered.
With that in mind, the kinds of roof damage covered by insurance are:
If your roof is damaged by any of the above during a strong storm, your insurance should cover the damage. However, it’s ultimately up to what the insurance adjuster finds during an inspection if there’s a viable claim.
Knowing if storm damage is covered is one thing, but you also need to know how to identify it. This doesn’t guarantee approval, but it helps determine if starting the insurance process is worth it.
If there’s hail damage, the shingles, vents, and other soft metals will have dents. You’ll definitely have to be on the roof to check for this, but it risks your safety and takes a trained eye to spot.
So, I recommend looking for hail or splatter marks on things on the ground like downspouts, mailboxes, cars, AC units, grills, shutters, etc. For wind damage, look for missing, creased, or sliding shingles while walking around your property.
Missing or sliding shingles are easier to spot, but you usually have to be on the roof to find creased or lifted shingles. But no matter what kind of damage it is, I never recommend getting on your roof if you don’t have experience.
Insurance will provide a payout to fix your damaged roof if there are no exclusions. However, the policy you have determines if they’ll pay to replace your old roof with a new one.
So, you need to check if your policy is an Actual Cash Value policy or Replacement Cost Value policy. Both provide a payment, but the amount is very different.
An Actual Cash Value (ACV) policy only pays out the depreciated value of your roof. With this policy, your insurance company only has to give you what your roof is valued at the time of the claim.
This policy will not cover the full cost of a new roof, which leaves you paying for the rest of it out-of-pocket or not replacing the entire thing. While an ACV payout will never be enough, some roofers will do it for the amount this policy gives you.
However, this almost 100% guarantees using cheap materials and labor that sets your roof investment up for premature failure from the start.
A Replacement Cost Value (RCV) policy is technically supposed to give you what it costs to replace your roof with a brand-new version of itself. Once your claim is approved, the insurance company sends a check for the actual cost value of your roof while holding back the recoverable depreciation.
After your roof replacement and providing proof it was done per the claim, you’ll get a second check. This should take care of the majority of the roof replacement, but it takes work and your insurance company being reasonable to get the full cost covered.
Also, keep in mind that the insurance company only pays to restore your new roof to a brand-new version of itself. So, you’ll have to pay out-of-pocket for any upgrades, like going from 3-tab asphalt shingles to architectural asphalt shingles.
No matter what you hear or what a roofing company says, you must pay your deductible once your insurance claim is approved and you decide to move forward. This is one of the biggest scams in the roofing industry and is outright committing insurance fraud.
So, it’s completely illegal for roofing companies to pay deductibles. Unfortunately, some homeowners with higher deductibles jump at the opportunity to avoid paying it.
I understand saving money where you can but having a roofing company eat your deductible is not worth committing fraud. That’s why you should NEVER listen to a company that mentions they’re willing to pay your deductible.
Even if you think you have roof damage, there’s always a chance a claim can be denied. One of the biggest reasons is that homeowners wait too long to file a claim.
Most insurance companies allow up to 1 year to file a claim after the storm, but some give 2 years. However, you’ll need to check your insurance paperwork to learn how long you have.
Another huge reason insurance companies deny claims is if the roof was improperly installed. They simply won’t fix something that wasn’t secured or done correctly in the first place.
In worst-case scenarios, insurance could even make you replace the roof anyway to continue coverage. This leaves you paying out of pocket or falling back on your roofer’s workmanship warranty.
Unfortunately, there’s a good chance they won’t stand behind their work if they didn’t install your roof properly to begin with.
Now you know what kind of roof damage is covered by insurance, how to identify it, if insurance will pay for a new roof, and more. The truth is that getting roof damage taken care of through insurance can be complicated.
Dealing with the insurance company can already be a frustrating experience, but there are also bad roofers looking to take advantage of homeowners. I want you to have the smoothest experience possible, whether you end up filing a claim or not.
That’s why I wrote another article breaking down the steps you should take to file a claim for roof damage.
Check out 5 Steps to File a Roof Damage Insurance Claim to learn what you should do once you decide to move forward with the claim process.