Will Insurance Cover My Roof? Damage, Deductibles, and Savings
Time to read: 7 minutes
Your roof is your home’s first line of defense against the elements, shielding your family against inclement weather day in and day out. However, when the unexpected occurs and roof damage strikes, it can leave homeowners wondering about the financial implications. Will your homeowner’s insurance come to the rescue? Will you have to pay a deductible on your repairs? And how could filing a claim affect your insurance premiums in the future? In this article, we’ll unravel the complexities of homeowner’s insurance as it relates to roofs, answering these questions and giving you the information you need to be ready if Mother Nature decides to have a field day with your roof – or navigate the ensuing mess if she already has.
What Types of Roof Damage Are Covered by Homeowners Insurance?
When it comes to roof damage, insurance companies can often be fairly conservative with what they cover, taking normal aging, damage caused by animals, rot and mold, and even earthquakes and flooding off the table altogether. In fact, some companies exclude even hurricanes and tornadoes, especially if you live in an area prone to that type of severe weather. Fortunately, homeowner’s insurance covers most other types of inclement weather, including hail, ice, and snow. It’ll also likely protect against fires, vandalism, and falling objects (such as a rotted tree or falling debris). In the end, it’s important to check with your insurance company to determine their policy toward the type of damage you’re facing.
Will Insurance Cover the Full Cost of Roof Repairs?
How much of the bill for roof replacement your policy will actually cover varies widely between different insurance companies. Most offer one of two policies, Actual Cash Value (ACV) or Replacement Cost Value (RCV).
If you have an ACV policy, your insurance company will give you the current depreciated value of your roof – in other words, what your roof is valued at today. This will likely not be enough to cover the cost of repairs or replacement, forcing you to pay the remaining difference out of pocket if you want a quality roof.
Conversely, with an RCV, you receive every penny it takes to replace your current roof, with none of your hard-earned money being pried away from your savings account. Of course, you’ll only be able to replace your roof with a novel version of itself, meaning that you’ll have to pay for any upgrades with your own money. Still, this policy is substantially more generous than its ACV counterpart, preventing you from having to deplete your savings all because of one bad storm.
Will I Have to Pay a Deductible for Roof Damage?
Almost always, you’ll have to pay a deductible on any roof repairs or replacements you need. In most cases, this will be the same general deductible that you signed up for when you bought your insurance. However, especially in coastal regions with frequent storms, there may be a named storm deductible or similar unique option, distinct from your overall deductible and often expressed as a percentage of your total coverage limit rather than a set number. Because of this, named storm deductibles will often cost more – while they usually sit around 1-5% of your dwelling coverage limit, they may climb to as much as 10% in particularly high-risk areas. Still, the spending is often worth it in places where severe storms regularly batter your home, preventing you from having to repeatedly pay for repairs and replacements over the years out of your own pocket.
Will the Repairs Affect How Much I Pay for Insurance?
Given that most roofs grow weaker as they age (often allowing them to sustain enough damage to require replacement in the first place), most insurance companies love to see their customers install new, sturdier roofs. Because these replacements will likely keep the companies from paying for even more costly repairs down the road, they often offer discounts to customers with roofs under ten years in age. This is especially true if those customers have shelled over a little extra money for upgrades to their roofs, allowing them to stand the test of time more than ever before – music to insurance companies’ ears. As such, roof replacements can often drop your homeowners insurance payments from anywhere between 5% and 35%, making replacing your damaged roof both a necessity and a worthy investment.
But like we said before, all of this information varies heavily between insurance companies, and the best way to make sure you’re secure is to review your policy. Nevertheless, a solid knowledge of how homeowner’s insurance relates to roof repairs and replacement will allow to you navigate the complexities of getting compensation for roof damage, giving you the peace of mind you deserve in the face of the unexpected.
1. Saving You Time and Money
And remember that difficult unclogging process I mentioned earlier? Well, it takes up quite a bit of time and effort. If you own a mid-sized home, you’ll likely spend 1-1.5 hours sitting atop a ladder or roof under the hot sun cleaning out loads of rotted debris from your gutter (that is, if you’re not deconstructing the downspout to reach a clog in an unfortunate location). Trust me, it’s not fun.
Of course, there are a variety of quality gutter cleaning services out there that will solve this problem for you. They’ll just cost you between $150 and $300. While that doesn’t sound like too much for a single cleaning, when you’re getting your gutters unclogged every three to six months (as you likely should), the money you spend builds up rapidly, draining funds from your savings account for a cleaning that was unnecessary to begin with.
By keeping your gutters unclogged, gutter guards vastly reduce the amount of time and money you devote to cleaning your gutters, giving both you and your wallet the freedom to pursue more important things without regularly having to shell over money for constant – and pricey — cleanings.
Conclusion
Still have questions? Baker Roofing is the trusted name in roofing all throughout the Southeast. Please don’t hesitate to contact our team to talk through your options and ensure you’re getting the roof you deserve.
