Something changed quietly on a lot of Colorado homeowner policies, and most people will not find out until they file a claim.
Wind and hail deductibles used to be a flat number. A thousand dollars, twenty-five hundred, whatever was printed on the declarations page. Most major carriers writing in Colorado have moved off that structure. Wind and hail now commonly runs as a percentage of your dwelling coverage — typically somewhere in the 1% to 5% range.
That sounds like a small administrative change. It is not. It can be the difference between a claim worth filing and a claim that is worth nothing at all.
The math nobody walks you through
Percentage deductibles are calculated against your dwelling coverage limit — the Coverage A number on your policy — not against your home's market value and not against the size of the claim.
So if your home is insured for $600,000 and your wind and hail deductible is 2%, your deductible on a hail claim is $12,000. Not the $2,500 you might have in your head from the last time you looked.
| Dwelling coverage | 1% | 2% | 5% |
|---|---|---|---|
| $400,000 | $4,000 | $8,000 | $20,000 |
| $600,000 | $6,000 | $12,000 | $30,000 |
| $800,000 | $8,000 | $16,000 | $40,000 |
| $1,000,000 | $10,000 | $20,000 | $50,000 |
Now put that next to what a roof actually costs. A straightforward asphalt shingle replacement on a typical Denver-metro house often lands in a range that a 2% deductible on a well-insured home can swallow whole. The claim technically exists. The payout does not.
What it changes about how you decide
Under a flat deductible, filing was usually obvious after a real hailstorm. Under a percentage deductible, it becomes an actual calculation, and there are three outcomes.
- Damage clearly exceeds the deductible. File. Nothing has changed for you except the number you pay out of pocket.
- Damage is close to the deductible. This is the hard one. A filed claim goes on your loss history whether or not it pays. Get the scope in writing first, then decide with real numbers.
- Damage is below the deductible. There is no claim worth making. What matters now is whether the damage is cosmetic or whether it has shortened the life of the roof — because that repair is yours either way.
This is exactly why we do not lead with "we will get your roof covered." We inspect, we document, and we tell you what we actually found. Sometimes the honest answer is that your roof has years left and this storm did not change that.
Check the other thing while you are in there
While you have the policy open, find out whether your roof is covered at replacement cost value or actual cash value. Some homeowners have been shifted to actual cash value without registering it.
Replacement cost pays what it costs to put a new roof on today. Actual cash value pays the depreciated value of the roof you had — so a fifteen-year-old shingle roof is reimbursed as a fifteen-year-old shingle roof, and the gap between that check and the real bill is yours to cover. Stack an actual-cash-value settlement on top of a percentage deductible and a "covered" roof can leave you paying for most of it.
What to actually do about it
- Pull your declarations page today. Find two lines: the wind/hail deductible, and whether roof coverage is RCV or ACV. If you cannot find them, your agent can tell you in five minutes.
- Do the multiplication now. Write the real dollar figure somewhere you will find it. Guessing after a storm is how people get hurt.
- Ask what a lower percentage costs. Sometimes moving from 2% to 1% is affordable. Sometimes it is not offered at all. Worth the phone call.
- Document the roof while it is intact. Dated photos of an undamaged roof make a future claim dramatically easier to argue.
- Get the scope before the claim. Know what the repair actually costs before you decide whether to file.
One more thing, because it matters
If a contractor offers to "cover your deductible," "waive it," or "work it into the numbers" — that is a crime in Colorado, not a favor. Under C.R.S. 6-22-105 a roofing contractor may not pay, waive or rebate your insurance deductible. A company willing to break that law on the first phone call is telling you something about how it will behave once it is on your roof.
Colorado's residential roofing statute also gives you a written contract and the right to rescind it within 72 hours — including within 72 hours of written notice that your insurer has denied the claim in whole or in part. Know that before you sign anything in a driveway.
If you want a straight read on your roof with no claim pressure attached, that is what our roofing inspections are for. We will tell you if it is fine.
Keep reading from the BH Builders blog
I have watched homeowners find out about this standing in their driveway after a storm, holding a policy they have not read in six years. Read it before the hail comes, not after.DT · Owner, BH Builders
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