Five things on your homeowners policy decide whether insurance actually pays for a new roof after a Colorado hailstorm: your wind and hail deductible, whether your roof is settled at ACV or RCV, whether a roof payment schedule caps the payout by roof age, whether a cosmetic damage exclusion strips out dented metal, and whether you carry ordinance and law coverage for code-required upgrades. Any one of them can leave you thousands short. Together, they are why homeowners with an approved hail claim increasingly cannot afford to replace the roof the claim was for.
This is what to check before you sign a policy or accept a renewal — and where each item hides on the paperwork.
Why your policy changed and nobody told you
Colorado is one of the most expensive hail states in the country, and carriers have spent the last several years moving roof risk back onto homeowners. Premiums went up, but that was the visible part. The quieter change was structural: percentage deductibles replaced flat ones, roof payment schedules appeared on renewals, and cosmetic damage exclusions were added by endorsement.
Most of those changes arrived at renewal, in a packet nobody reads. The policy you have now is frequently not the policy you bought.
At the same time, roofing costs rose sharply — materials, labor, and code requirements all moved. The gap between what a policy pays and what a roof costs is wider than it has been at any point we have worked in this market.
A note on what this is: we are a roofing and storm-restoration contractor, not a licensed insurance agency. This explains how these policy features behave on a claim, which is what we see every week. It is not insurance advice, and it is not a substitute for a conversation with a licensed agent who can look at your specific policy.
1. Your wind and hail deductible is probably a percentage now
This is the single biggest change, and the one that surprises people most.
A traditional deductible is a flat number: $1,000, $2,500. A percentage deductible is calculated against Coverage A — your dwelling limit — and applies only to wind and hail claims. Colorado policies commonly carry 1% to 5%, with higher percentages on older roofs.
The math is not intuitive until you run it:
| Dwelling limit (Coverage A) | 1% | 2% | 5% |
|---|---|---|---|
| $400,000 | $4,000 | $8,000 | $20,000 |
| $600,000 | $6,000 | $12,000 | $30,000 |
| $850,000 | $8,500 | $17,000 | $42,500 |
A homeowner with a $600,000 dwelling limit and a 2% wind/hail deductible pays the first $12,000 of a hail claim. If the roof scope comes in at $22,000, the carrier's check is around $10,000 — for a roof that costs $22,000 to replace.
Two things worth knowing:
- Your all-other-perils deductible is often much lower, which is why the wind/hail number goes unnoticed. Seeing "$1,000 deductible" on the declarations page tells you nothing about what applies to hail.
- No contractor can pay it for you. Under C.R.S. 6-22-105, a Colorado roofing contractor may not pay, waive, rebate, or advertise to waive any part of your deductible on an insurance claim. Anyone offering is breaking state law.
2. ACV vs RCV, and the roof-only endorsement
Replacement cost value (RCV) pays what it costs to replace your roof with like kind and quality today, minus your deductible. Actual cash value (ACV) pays replacement cost minus depreciation — you absorb the age of the roof.
On a 15-year-old roof, that difference is routinely half the job.
The trap is that these are not always whole-policy settings. Many Colorado policies are RCV on the structure but carry a roof-only ACV endorsement — the house is covered at replacement cost, the roof is not. This is common on homes over a certain roof age and after prior claims. It is easy to miss because the declarations page says "replacement cost" at the top.
We have a full breakdown of the depreciation math and how to recover it in ACV vs RCV: What Colorado Homeowners Need to Know.
3. Roof payment schedules — the newest one, and the least understood
A roof payment schedule is a table in your policy that caps the payout by roof age, using fixed percentages, regardless of the roof's actual condition.
A representative schedule looks something like this:
| Roof age | Percentage paid |
|---|---|
| 0–5 years | 100% |
| 6–10 years | 70–80% |
| 11–15 years | 40–60% |
| 16+ years | 20–30% |
Tables vary considerably between carriers — treat the above as illustrative, not as your policy.
The effect is that a functionally sound 14-year-old roof with a 25-year shingle on it gets paid as though it were half-consumed. Combined with a percentage deductible, the homeowner can be responsible for the large majority of the replacement cost on a fully approved claim.
It appears under several names, which is part of why homeowners miss it:
- Roof Payment Schedule (RPS)
- Roof Surfacing Payment Schedule
- Scheduled Roof Settlement
- Limited Loss Settlement for Windstorm or Hail Losses to Roof Surfacing
If any of those phrases appear in your forms and endorsements list, your roof is not covered at replacement cost, whatever the rest of the policy says.
4. Cosmetic damage and marring exclusions
A cosmetic damage exclusion removes coverage for hail damage that changes how something looks without stopping it from functioning. The policy language typically refers to marring, pitting, or superficial damage that does not prevent the surface from performing its intended function of keeping out the elements.
In practice, it targets:
- Dented metal roofing and standing seam panels
- Dented gutters and downspouts that still drain
- Dimpled ridge vents, turtle vents, and turbines that still ventilate
- Marred window wraps, fascia trim, and flashing
- Dented A/C condenser fins
This matters more than the word "cosmetic" suggests, for two reasons.
First, on a metal roof it can be most of the claim. Hail rarely breaches metal. It dents it. A metal roof with a hundred visible dents that still sheds water may be excluded entirely.
Second, soft metals are evidence. Dents on gutters, vents, and window wraps are how an adjuster confirms hail size and direction. When those line items are excluded, the corroborating evidence for the roof itself gets weaker, and scopes come back thinner.
These are added by endorsement — they are not in the standard base form. That means someone added it, usually at a renewal.
5. Ordinance and law coverage — the one Colorado law addresses directly
Standard property insurance pays to restore what you had. It does not pay to bring your home up to current building code.
That gap is real money on a Front Range roof replacement. Municipalities commonly require, on a full replacement:
- Ice and water shield in valleys and along eaves
- Drip edge
- Corrected intake and exhaust ventilation to current code
- Updated flashing details
If your 2003 roof did not have these, a standard policy may pay to replace what was there and leave you to fund the code items. On a typical Denver Metro replacement that can run several thousand dollars.
Colorado law is unusually specific here. Under C.R.S. 10-4-110.8, insurers must offer law and ordinance coverage equal to at least 20% of your dwelling limit, and extended replacement cost coverage of at least 50%. They are required to offer it. You are not required to buy it — and many homeowners rejected it without registering that they had.
Two consumer protections worth using:
- Your declarations page must state, in bold 12-point type, whether you purchased or rejected these coverages. That is a specific thing you can look for.
- Since January 1, 2025, insurers must give you an estimate of reconstruction cost at application and at each renewal, disclose how it was calculated, and provide the software-generated estimate. If your dwelling limit looks low relative to what rebuilding actually costs, you are entitled to see the math.
How these stack up: a worked example
Consider a Thornton homeowner with a $600,000 dwelling limit and a 14-year-old asphalt roof, hit by hail. The replacement scope, including code items, comes to $24,000.
| Amount | |
|---|---|
| Full replacement scope | $24,000 |
| Roof payment schedule at 50% (14-year roof) | −$12,000 |
| Less 2% wind/hail deductible | −$12,000 |
| Code items, no ordinance and law coverage | −$2,800 |
| Carrier pays | $0 |
| Homeowner pays | $24,000 |
That is an approved claim. Nothing was denied. The damage was real, the adjuster agreed, and the policy performed exactly as written.
This is not a worst case we invented to make a point. It is the shape of the conversations we are having with homeowners this season, and it is why the policy decision matters more than the claim strategy.
What happens if you file, get approved, and then can't replace the roof
This is the situation we are running into most often this season, and it is worth understanding before it happens to you. An approved claim that never turns into a roof is not a neutral outcome. Five things follow.
You forfeit the recoverable depreciation. On an RCV policy the carrier pays the actual cash value first and holds back the depreciation until the work is done and invoiced. If the roof is never replaced, that second payment is never released. Carriers set a deadline to complete the work and request the release — commonly somewhere between 12 and 24 months from the date of loss, though it varies by policy, so read yours. Miss it and the held-back money is gone permanently.
Your mortgage company may control the money. Claim checks above a certain amount are usually made payable to you and your lender. Most servicers deposit the funds and release them in stages against proof that the work is being done. If the roof is not replaced, the lender may refuse to release the funds, apply them to your loan balance, or require the repairs under the terms of your mortgage, which generally obligates you to maintain the property.
The damage is now documented. Your claim is reported to the industry claims database (CLUE), which other carriers pull when you apply for coverage. A property with a reported hail loss and no corresponding repair is visible to any underwriter looking at you — and unrepaired damage is exactly the kind of thing that turns an application into a decline.
Your renewal terms can change. Carriers respond to roof losses at renewal in ways that are entirely legal: moving the roof from replacement cost to actual cash value, adding a roof payment schedule, adding a cosmetic damage exclusion, or non-renewing. Colorado does give you protections here. Under C.R.S. 10-4-110.7, an insurer must mail at least 60 days' notice before cancelling or non-renewing a homeowners policy, and must state the specific reasons. And if your claims history caused the adverse action, the insurer must disclose the specific claim information behind it. Read that notice rather than filing it.
The next storm gets complicated. You cannot claim the same damage twice. When the next hailstorm comes through and an adjuster finds a roof with documented, unrepaired damage from a prior claim, separating old damage from new becomes your burden to prove. That is a materially harder claim than the one you would have had on a sound roof.
Selling a house with a hail-damaged roof
If the plan is to sell rather than replace, understand that the roof follows the transaction.
You have to disclose it. Colorado's Seller's Property Disclosure (form SPD19) asks directly about damage from hail, wind, fire, or flood, and about the roof's condition, age, leaks, and repairs. The standard is your current actual knowledge — and a filed insurance claim is about as clear a record of knowledge as exists. Colorado also requires sellers to disclose adverse material defects whether or not the form names them. Unrepaired hail damage on a roof you claimed is not a close call.
The buyer's lender may not allow it. FHA and VA appraisals require the roof to keep water out and to have remaining useful life — commonly at least two to three years. If the appraiser flags the roof, the repairs generally have to be completed and re-inspected before the loan can close. The workarounds are an escrow holdback or a renovation loan such as an FHA 203(k), and both add friction, cost, and time to a deal.
The buyer may not be able to insure it. This is the one sellers underestimate. Carriers are frequently unwilling to write a new policy on a home with a known damaged roof. No policy means no mortgage, which means no closing — regardless of how motivated the buyer is.
You pay for the roof either way. A buyer who learns the roof is hail-damaged will ask for it in price or in a concession, and they will value it at full replacement cost, not at what your claim would have paid. So you lose the depreciation you never collected and you discount the house. The recoverable depreciation is tied to your claim and your policy — it does not transfer to the new owner, so nobody recovers it.
If the money genuinely isn't there
Sometimes the numbers just do not work, and the honest answer is that the policy underinsured the roof. A few things are worth doing before you let the claim lapse:
- Ask your carrier for the completion deadline in writing, and ask whether an extension is available. Many will grant one for a legitimate reason.
- Ask for a re-inspection or supplement if the scope missed code items, soft metals, or slopes. Underpaid is not the same as unaffordable.
- Look at financing rather than deferral. We offer financing options, and the cost of financing a roof is generally lower than the compounding cost of a forfeited depreciation payment, a changed renewal, and a discounted sale price.
- Do not let the deadline pass quietly. The worst outcome is the one where nothing is decided and the window simply closes.
What to check on your policy this week
Pull your declarations page — usually the first two pages of your packet — and look for:
- A separate wind/hail or windstorm deductible line. Is it a percentage or a flat amount? If a percentage, multiply it by Coverage A and write down the dollar figure.
- Your roof settlement basis. Does the policy say replacement cost throughout, or is there a roof-specific ACV endorsement?
- The forms and endorsements list. Search it for "roof," "schedule," "cosmetic," and "marring." These features live in endorsements, not the main body.
- The bold 12-point notice showing whether you purchased or rejected law and ordinance and extended replacement cost coverage.
- Your reconstruction cost estimate. Does the dwelling limit reflect what it would actually cost to rebuild at today's prices?
What to ask your agent
Ask these in writing so you have the answers on record:
- What is my wind and hail deductible in dollars, not percent?
- Is my roof settled at replacement cost or actual cash value?
- Does my policy contain a roof payment schedule? If so, send me the table.
- Does my policy contain a cosmetic damage or marring exclusion?
- Do I carry law and ordinance coverage, and at what percentage of my dwelling limit?
- What would my premium be with a lower wind/hail deductible, and with law and ordinance added?
That last question is the one most homeowners never ask. The premium difference is often smaller than people assume, and it is the difference between a claim that funds a roof and a claim that does not.
One thing you control regardless of policy
Whatever your coverage looks like, the shingle on your roof affects both future claims and, with many carriers, your premium.
Class 4 impact-rated shingles are the floor in Colorado, not an upgrade. They are built to survive the hail this market produces rather than to be claimed after it. Our standard recommendation is TAMKO Titan XT, and for maximum impact resistance, TAMKO Storm Fighter IR. Many Colorado carriers discount premiums for Class 4 roofs — the amount varies by carrier, so ask your agent before you choose.
A Class 4 roof does not make a bad policy good. It does mean fewer claims, and every claim you do not file is one that cannot be used to justify a roof payment schedule at your next renewal.
Where Hilltop fits
We are a full-service exterior contractor in Aurora working across the Denver Metro and Front Range, and most of what we do is storm restoration. We read policies every week — not to give insurance advice, but because the policy determines what the claim can become, and homeowners deserve to know that before the adjuster arrives rather than after.
If you want to know where you actually stand, we will inspect your roof for free, document what a hailstorm did to it, and tell you plainly what your policy is likely to pay. Including when the honest answer is that it will not pay enough.
We are TAMKO Pro Certified and BBB A+ Accredited, licensed in the municipalities we work in, and insured for general liability and workers' compensation.