How a roof claim actually works

Get an independent assessment first

Filing a claim that turns out to be under your deductible costs you nothing but is on your record anyway. Find out the scale of the damage before you pick up the phone.

Mind the deadline

Policies impose time limits on reporting damage, and they are shorter than people assume. Damage found late — hail in particular — is often denied simply because too long has passed.

Read anything before you sign it

Be wary of any contract signed in a hurry after a storm, particularly one that ties you to the contractor regardless of what the insurer decides.

Stop further damage, and keep the receipts

Policies expect you to take reasonable steps to prevent things getting worse, and they generally reimburse the cost of doing so. Tarps, emergency call-outs, a temporary patch. Keep every receipt.

Know what your policy actually pays

Replacement cost pays what it costs to replace the roof today. Actual cash value pays that minus depreciation, which on a fifteen-year-old roof can be most of it. Find out which you have before you file, along with your deductible.

Photograph everything, immediately

Wide shots that show the house, close shots that show the damage, and pictures of the inside where water came through. Dated, before anybody touches anything. An adjuster can work with photographs; they cannot work with a description.

In short

Document first, mitigate second, file third. In that order it usually goes smoothly; in any other order it usually does not.