Your Insurance Is Asking About Your Roof.
That's Not a Compliment.

Sarge on Insurance: The Stuff Nobody Explains

I've sat at a lot of kitchen tables in Marion County. Same questions come up every time, especially now that insurance companies are dropping folks and raising rates. Here's the straight version. No sales pitch.

What's my deductible, and how does it work on a roof claim?

Your deductible is the part of the repair you pay before your insurance company pays a dime. It's in your policy. On a roof claim it usually shows up one of two ways:

• A flat dollar amount (say, $2,500), or
• A percentage of your dwelling coverage — your "Coverage A." In Florida a lot of policies now carry a separate roof deductible or hurricane/wind deductible that's a percentage, commonly 2% of your dwelling limit. On a $400,000 home, 2% is $8,000 out of your pocket.

Here's the part people miss: the insurance company doesn't hand you a check for the whole roof. They pay the cost of the roof minus your deductible (and minus depreciation, if you've got an ACV policy — more on that below). So before you ever sign anything, find your deductible. Read the declarations page — the first page of your policy. If you can't find it, call your agent and ask flat out: "What's my deductible on a roof claim?" Know that number before a storm, not after.

I'll tell you your honest deductible every time. Anybody who tells you they can make it disappear is breaking the law. That's the next question.

A contractor told me he'd "waive my deductible" so the roof costs me nothing. Is that legit?

No. It's illegal in Florida, and the guy offering it is the guy you should walk away from.

Florida law (Statute 489.147) makes it a crime for a roofer to pay, waive, rebate, or "eat" your insurance deductible. It's insurance fraud — a third-degree felony — and a contractor can be fined up to $10,000 for each time he does it. The law even requires that your roofing contract include a written notice saying the contractor can't waive your deductible. If that notice isn't in your contract, you can cancel within 10 days.

Think about how it actually works: if a roofer tells the insurance company the job costs $20,000 but secretly doesn't charge you your $5,000 deductible, he either padded the bill by $5,000 or he's cutting $5,000 of corners somewhere you can't see — usually the part that keeps water out of your house. Either way, somebody's getting cheated, and your name is on the claim.

I don't do it. Not because I'm a saint — because it's fraud, and because the homeowner is the one left holding the bag when it unravels. When I quote you, your deductible is your deductible. I'll help you understand it. I won't pretend it isn't there.

ACV vs. RCV — what's the difference, and why should I care?

This is the difference between getting most of your roof paid for and getting a fraction of it. Know which one you have before you have a claim.

• RCV — Replacement Cost Value. The policy pays what it actually costs today to replace your roof with a new one of like kind and quality, minus your deductible. Usually it works in two checks: they send the depreciated amount first, then release the rest (the "recoverable depreciation") after the work is done and invoiced. This is the coverage you want.
• ACV — Actual Cash Value. The policy pays replacement cost minus depreciation — and you don't get the depreciation back. They knock off value for the age and wear of the old roof. A 15-year-old shingle roof can be depreciated 60% or more, which means on a $20,000 roof you might see a check for $8,000 minus your deductible, and the rest is on you.

Florida insurers are now allowed to put roofs on ACV — especially older roofs — while the rest of the house stays on replacement cost. A lot of folks got switched to an ACV roof at renewal and never realized it. So pull your policy and look for "Actual Cash Value" or "roof settlement" language. If you've got an ACV roof, that's not the end of the world — but you need to plan for a bigger out-of-pocket number, and it's a real argument for replacing a tired roof on your terms instead of waiting for it to fail.

What's an AOB, and should I sign one?

AOB stands for Assignment of Benefits. It's a document that signs your insurance claim rights over to a contractor — so they deal with the insurance company and get paid directly, instead of you staying in the driver's seat.

Here's where Florida landed on it: for homeowner policies issued or renewed on or after January 1, 2023, you can't assign your post-loss benefits anymore — the SB 2-A reforms did away with it. So on most current Florida policies, AOB isn't even on the table. If you have an older policy that still allows it, be very careful.

My honest take: you almost never need to hand your claim over to anybody. When you sign an AOB, you can lose control of your own claim — the contractor decides what to fight for, what to settle, and sometimes you find out about decisions after they're made. The history of AOBs in Florida is a history of inflated bills, lawsuits, and homeowners caught in the middle. That's a big reason the law changed.

You can hire me — or any honest roofer — to do your roof without ever signing your benefits away. I work for you, you stay in charge of your claim, and you sign the checks. That's how it should be.

This is general information for homeowners, not legal or insurance advice. Your policy and your situation are specific — read your declarations page and call your agent or a licensed public adjuster with questions. — Sarge