How the claim actually works

ACV, RCV, and the depreciation game

Your roof is fifteen years old. A new one costs $24,000. The insurer does not just hand you $24,000; how close you get depends on two letters in your policy.

• Replacement cost value (RCV) coverage pays what a new equivalent roof costs. But it usually arrives in two checks: first the depreciated amount, then the held-back depreciation after you actually complete the work and submit the invoice. That second check is called recoverable depreciation, and every year homeowners leave it on the table because nobody told them to claim it.
• Actual cash value (ACV) coverage pays the depreciated value only: new-roof price minus fifteen years of wear. On an older roof that difference is enormous. Some policies quietly carry roof-specific ACV endorsements or separate, higher wind-hail deductibles; the declarations page tells you which policy you actually have.

The single highest-value read of your life may be the two pages of your policy covering roof surfaces. The Playbook has a decoder worksheet for exactly those pages.

The adjuster inspection

The insurer sends an adjuster to inspect, usually within days to a couple of weeks. Three things to know. First, the adjuster is a professional damage evaluator working for the insurer; polite, often fair, never your representative. Second, you may attend the inspection, and you should: walk the property, point out everything on your photo list, and do not let a drive-by count as an inspection. Third, hail damage is judged by test squares on each roof slope; ask which slopes were tested and what was counted. If a contractor you trust has already looked, having them present for the inspection is allowed and often productive.

Reading the estimate, and why supplements exist

The insurer's estimate arrives as a line-item document, usually from software called Xactimate. First offers routinely miss real costs: underlayment, ice-and-water barrier where code requires it, drip edge, ventilation, debris removal, steep-slope labor, code-upgrade costs your policy may cover. A supplement is the normal, expected process for adding missed items, usually filed by your contractor once they open the roof. The claim is not over when the first check arrives; on a typical hail roof the supplement process moves the number meaningfully.

When the offer is short

The ladder, in order: ask for a re-inspection with your contractor present; put disagreements in writing and ask the insurer to respond in writing; invoke the appraisal clausein your policy, a binding-ish neutral valuation process most policyholders have never heard of; file a complaint with your state's insurance department, which insurers track closely; and for a large gap, talk to a policyholder-side attorney, many of whom work hail cases on contingency. Public adjusters exist too: licensed professionals who run the claim for a percentage, worth considering on large, contested losses.

The deadlines nobody mentions

Policies impose prompt notice, proof-of-loss windows (sometimes 60 days when the insurer requests one), and suit limitation periods that can be shorter than the state statute of limitations. Recoverable depreciation typically must be claimed within a stated period after the loss, often 180 days to a year. None of these are secrets; all of them are in the policy nobody reads. Calendar them the week the claim opens.