Will my homeowner’s insurance cover roof damage?
Usually yes if the damage was sudden and caused by a covered peril, which in North Texas almost always means hail or wind. Usually no if the roof simply wore out, was installed badly or was already failing. The dividing line your carrier applies is sudden and accidental against gradual, and everything else follows from that.
Sudden damage is covered, wear never is
A standard Texas homeowner’s policy is written against named or open perils with exclusions, and in both shapes the exclusion that catches roofs is wear and tear. Age, weathering, deterioration and faulty workmanship are the homeowner’s problem. Hail, windstorm and falling objects are the carrier’s.
That is why the date of loss matters so much. A claim has to attach to a storm, and an inspection that can tie the damage to a particular event is doing the most useful thing available to you.
ACV and RCV decide how much of it you actually see
Replacement cost value policies pay what it costs to put the roof back, but they pay it in two parts. The first cheque is actual cash value, which is the replacement cost minus depreciation for the age of the roof. The remainder, the recoverable depreciation, is released once the work is finished and invoiced. So a homeowner with an approved claim commonly receives well under half of the total up front and wonders whether something has gone wrong. Nothing has.
Actual cash value policies are a different proposition. They pay the depreciated value and stop, which on a fifteen-year-old roof can be a small fraction of the replacement cost. Some carriers also apply a roof payment schedule endorsement that puts an older roof onto ACV terms without changing the rest of the policy. Both are worth checking on your declarations page before a storm rather than after one.
The deductible is yours, and that is the law
Texas law is explicit. A contractor may not pay, waive, absorb, rebate or offset a homeowner’s insurance deductible, and an invoice written to conceal one is fraud. Any offer to make a deductible disappear is a reason to stop the conversation.
Most Texas policies now carry a percentage wind and hail deductible rather than a flat dollar one, commonly one to two percent of the dwelling coverage. On a four hundred thousand dollar dwelling limit, two percent is eight thousand dollars, which is often more than the repair. Read that number before you decide whether to file at all.
What a contractor can and cannot do for you
A roofing contractor can inspect, document, measure, meet your adjuster and build to the agreed scope. That is genuinely useful and it is where most claims are won or lost.
What a roofing contractor may not do in Texas is act as a public adjuster: negotiating or adjusting the claim on your behalf is a licensed activity, and the same law that protects your deductible prohibits a contractor from doing it. If somebody offers to handle your whole claim for you, they are describing something they are not allowed to do.
Related questions
How long do I have to file after a storm?
Texas policies commonly allow a period measured in years from the date of loss, but it varies by policy and carriers get more sceptical as time passes. Weeks is better than years.
Will filing raise my premium?
That is a question for your agent. A widespread weather event affects a whole rating area rather than only the households who claimed, but the specifics are the carrier’s.
Can I keep the money and not fix the roof?
With an ACV-only settlement, in principle. You will not receive the recoverable depreciation, the next buyer’s inspector will find the roof, and a later claim on the same roof will be harder.