Two lines on a homeowners declarations page do most of the work in a roof claim, and neither of them is the coverage limit. The first is how the wind and hail deductible is calculated. The second is whether the roof is settled at replacement cost or on a schedule that reduces with age.
Both have shifted over the past decade in ways that were disclosed at renewal and read by almost nobody, which is why the surprise usually arrives with the estimate.
The mechanism behind the percentage deductible
A flat deductible is a fixed dollar figure. A percentage deductible is calculated against the insured value of the dwelling, and for wind or hail it is now common to see one applied separately from the ordinary deductible.
The arithmetic is worth doing on your own numbers, because it is not intuitive. A house insured for a few hundred thousand dollars with a two percent wind and hail deductible carries a deductible in the thousands for that peril alone. Damage that would have been a claim under a flat deductible sits entirely below the percentage one, and you pay for the repair yourself while continuing to carry the coverage.
Insurers moved this way because roof claims cluster: one hail event produces thousands of claims in a county on the same afternoon. A percentage deductible is a way of keeping the coverage available for the losses that would be ruinous while pushing the smaller ones back to the homeowner.
The second number, and why age matters now
Replacement cost settlement pays what it costs to put a new roof on, subject to the deductible. Actual cash value pays that figure with depreciation subtracted, and on a roof in its fifteenth year the subtraction is large.
Between the two sits a newer arrangement: a roof surface payment schedule, an endorsement that pays a declining percentage as the covering ages, set out in a table by roof type. Asphalt shingle schedules typically decline faster than metal or tile, because their expected service life is shorter.
None of this is hidden. It is an endorsement listed by form number on the declarations page, and the table is a page in the policy. But a form number means nothing to a reader, so it passes.
What to check, in about fifteen minutes
- Find the wind and hail deductible and convert any percentage into dollars, using your dwelling limit. Write the dollar figure in the margin, because that is the number that will matter.
- Look for the words actual cash value, roof surface payment schedule, or roof settlement endorsement anywhere in the declarations. Any of them means the age of your roof affects the payout.
- Find the date the roof was installed and keep it with the policy. Every conversation you have later starts with that date.
- Check whether cosmetic damage is excluded. This endorsement pays for function and not appearance, and dented but intact metal roofing or siding is the usual subject.
The photographs to take now
Before the season rather than after. A dozen photographs of each elevation and of the roof from the ground, plus the gutters, the fascia, any outbuilding and the fence.
The purpose is to show condition before the storm, because the argument in a hail claim is almost never about whether there was a storm. It is about which damage the storm caused and which was already there. A dated set of photographs from March answers that question in a way nothing else does.
While you are outside, look at what will become a projectile. Loose fence panels, an unsecured trampoline, dead limbs over the roof line. Preventing damage is worth more than proving it, and most policies expect reasonable care as a condition anyway.
After a storm, in the first week
Photograph everything before any tarp goes up, then make temporary repairs and keep the receipts, because preventing further damage is generally required and generally reimbursable.
Get your own inspection from a roofer who is not the first person to knock on the door. Crews follow storms, and the honest ones and the ones you will regret arrive in the same week and use the same script. Be careful with any document that assigns your insurance benefits to a contractor. Several states have restricted the practice after abuse, and signing one hands your claim to someone else to negotiate.
File promptly. Policies carry notice deadlines, and states set limits on how long after a loss a claim can be brought.
What a roof inspection should produce
Ask for photographs of the damage, a count of hits per square where hail is involved, and a note of which slopes are affected. Wind and hail damage is assessed by slope, and it is entirely normal for a claim to cover two elevations rather than a whole roof.
That last point is where the disagreements happen. A roofer says the whole roof, an adjuster says the north and west slopes, and both may be arguing in good faith about matching: whether the undamaged slopes can be repaired with shingles that still match the rest. Some states have specific rules on matching and some policies address it directly, which is another line worth finding before the season rather than during it.
The choice this leaves you
Once both numbers are written down, the decision is a straightforward one about risk. A higher wind and hail deductible lowers the premium, and for a household with savings to absorb a moderate repair that can be a rational trade. For a household without that cushion it is not, and the difference in premium is usually smaller than people expect.
Ask your agent for a quote at two deductible levels and at replacement cost settlement, in writing, before the renewal. While you have the agent on the phone, ask about flood. It is excluded from every standard homeowners form and has to be bought separately, usually under the federal flood program that FEMA runs. That is the third surprise in this family, and it is the cheapest of the three to get ahead of, because the whole of it is one question asked while somebody is already listening.