Does homeowners insurance cover hail damage to a roof in Texas?
Usually, yes. Most Texas homeowners policies cover sudden hail damage to a roof, minus your deductible, and the wind and hail deductible is often a percentage of your dwelling coverage. Wear and age are excluded, so a claim turns on whether the adjuster sees storm damage or a roof that was already worn out. How much you receive also depends on whether your policy pays replacement cost or actual cash value.
The wind and hail deductible is often a percentage of the house
Both of the homeowners policy forms you see most often in Texas include hail. Where people get caught is the deductible. Many Texas policies carry a separate wind and hail deductible written as a percentage of the dwelling limit, commonly 1% or 2%.
On a house insured for $350,000, a 2% deductible is $7,000, and it comes off the claim before anything is paid. A full asphalt shingle replacement on an average North Texas home tends to fall somewhere between $9,000 and $15,000, so a small roof on a high-deductible policy can leave very little after the deductible is taken out.
Look at the declarations page of your policy while nothing is wrong. If the wind and hail deductible is shown as a percentage, multiply it out. That number tells you roughly how much damage has to be on the roof before a claim makes sense.
The deductible is also yours to pay by law. A 2019 change to the Texas Insurance Code bars roofing contractors from waiving, absorbing or rebating a homeowner's deductible, and an offer to cover it is an offer to break that law.
Replacement cost and actual cash value pay very different amounts
A replacement cost policy pays what it costs to put a comparable roof on at today's prices, minus the deductible. It usually arrives in two payments. The first is the depreciated value of the old roof. The second releases the depreciation that was held back, once the new roof is installed and the insurer has the final invoice.
An actual cash value policy stops at the first payment. The insurer subtracts depreciation for the age of the roof, and on a roof that is fifteen years old that can take a large share of the total. Some carriers place older roofs on a payment schedule even when the rest of the house is covered at replacement cost, so read the roof section of the policy on its own.
If you have a mortgage, expect the check to be made out to you and your lender together. Many lenders hold the money and release it in stages as the work is done, which is worth asking about before the roof is scheduled.
The adjuster is deciding between storm damage and old age
An adjuster looks for damage a single storm could cause: dents in the soft metals, bruised or fractured shingles in a random pattern, and enough hits on each slope to show the roof lost function. Blistering, thermal cracking and granules worn away by years of sun are age, and policies exclude them. Many Texas policies also carry a cosmetic damage exclusion, aimed mostly at metal roofs, for dents that do not let water in.
Texas law puts insurers on a clock. Under Chapter 542 of the Insurance Code, an insurer generally has 15 days to acknowledge a claim, 15 business days after receiving the information it asked for to accept or deny it, and 5 business days after accepting it to pay. Extensions exist, and the insurer has to tell you why it needs one.
Report hail damage soon after the storm. Many Texas policies require a wind or hail claim within one year of the storm date, and every later storm makes it harder to show which one did the damage.
A roofing contractor can inspect the roof and meet the adjuster to point out what they found. Texas law does not let a contractor negotiate the claim for you; that takes a licensed public adjuster.
Related questions
Will filing a hail claim raise my insurance in Texas?
Texas law bars an insurer from refusing to renew a homeowners policy solely because of claims for damage from natural causes such as hail. Rates across a whole area can still rise after a heavy hail year, and a string of claims can count against you in other ways, so ask your agent how your carrier handles it.
Can a roofer pay or waive my deductible?
No. A 2019 Texas law prohibits roofing contractors from paying, waiving or rebating a homeowner's insurance deductible, including through discounts or credits designed to cover it.
How long do I have to file a hail claim in Texas?
Check the policy itself. Many Texas homeowners policies now require wind and hail claims within one year of the date of the storm, and some are shorter. Filing close to the storm date also makes the damage easier to tie to a specific event.
