Will my insurance pay for a new roof?
If a covered event such as hail or wind damaged it, generally yes, less your deductible. If the roof is simply old and worn out, no. Hail, wind and storm damage are an insurance loss on a homeowner policy, and where damage is found it is the insurance company that pays the cost of replacing the roof or the other damaged parts of the house.
Sudden damage is covered. Wearing out is not.
Every homeowner policy draws the same line. A sudden, identifiable event that damaged the property is covered. Deterioration over time is maintenance and it is excluded, which is why a twenty-five-year-old roof that has simply reached the end is not a claim no matter how bad it looks.
The practical consequence is that the age of your roof is not what decides the claim. A four-year-old roof hit by two-inch hail is a claim. A twenty-year-old roof that has never been hit by anything is not.
Replacement cost or actual cash value
This is the single most important line on a Texas roof policy and most homeowners have never read it. A replacement cost policy pays what it costs to put the roof back today. An actual cash value policy pays that figure less depreciation for the age of the roof, which on a fifteen-year-old shingle roof can be most of it.
Actual cash value roof endorsements have become much more common in Texas as carriers have responded to years of hail losses. If yours has one, the gap between what the policy pays and what the roof costs is yours to cover, and knowing that before the storm is better than finding out after.
The deductible, and who is allowed to pay it
Your deductible is your share. On many Texas policies the wind and hail deductible is a percentage of the dwelling coverage rather than a flat figure, so on a home insured for four hundred thousand dollars a two percent deductible is eight thousand dollars.
A contractor who offers to waive, absorb or rebate your deductible is proposing something Texas law treats as insurance fraud, and Texas statute has been explicit about that for years. A roofer advertising "we pay your deductible" is telling you something about how they operate that is worth listening to.
Filing does not have to cost you the policy
A hail claim is a weather event rather than something you caused. It is considered a natural disaster and should not count against you personally for future rate increases. Rates across a region do move after a big hail year, and that happens whether or not you filed.
What can matter is a pattern of claims over a short period, and that is a different thing from one storm.
Related questions
How long do I have to file a hail claim in Texas?
The policy sets the deadline and it is typically measured in years, but the practical limit is shorter: the longer you leave it the harder it is to tie the damage to a dated storm.
Can my insurer make me use their contractor?
No. An insurer can recommend a contractor and cannot require one, even when the adjuster arrives with a company in mind.
What is a supplement?
An addition to the approved scope for work the first estimate missed. Flashing, drip edge, decking and code-required items are the usual ones.
Will one claim get my policy canceled?
A single weather claim rarely does. Carriers look at claim frequency over time rather than at one storm.
