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If you have homeowners insurance, you may be wondering if it covers hail damage. In most cases, yes! Your homeowners insurance can help pay for the costs of repairing or replacing parts of your home damaged by hail. Whether it’s damage to your roof, siding or windows, your home insurance is designed to keep you worry-free from unexpected expenses due to hail damage.
Typically, the dwelling coverage on your homeowners insurance is what will help cover the costs of repairing or replacing parts of your home damaged by hail. You’ll still have to pay your deductible before your coverage kicks in, so keep that in mind before filing a claim. If the damage costs less than your deductible to repair, you shouldn’t file a claim.
While your basic homeowners insurance policy can help with many of the costs associated with repairing hail damage, you may want to consider adding a few other types of additional coverages to round out your protection.
Your homeowners policy typically covers the cost to repair hail damage done to your roof, but only at its actual cash value (ACV). The ACV of your roof is what it’s worth today, taking into consideration depreciation for things like age, condition and type of materials. With roof replacement cost coverage, however, your company will pay its replacement cost value (RCV), which is what it costs to replace today — not what it’s worth. So you’ll get more coverage to pay for a new roof.
While your homeowners insurance typically covers hail damage to your siding, it only covers the siding that was damaged — meaning you may end up with mismatched replacement siding when doing repairs. With matching siding coverage, if the new siding doesn’t match the existing siding on your home, or a reasonable match cannot be found, this coverage will replace the remaining siding on your home up to your coverage limit.
Your base homeowners insurance policy usually provides coverage for hail damage done to detached structures, like a shed or fence. Larger structures such as sheds over 300 square feet, swimming pools, etc. will need to be scheduled with other structures coverage. Your insurance can help pay for hail damage done to these types of structures.
No, liability insurance helps to cover legal expenses and settlement costs when someone sues you after being injured on your property. Generally, you aren’t liable for someone being injured on your property due to hail because it’s considered a weather event.
Your home insurance policy is there for you when hail damages your home. When your hail damage claim is accepted by your insurance, your policy will help to pay for repairs or replacement up to your coverage limits, minus your deductible. Your coverage limits should be high enough to cover these costs, but if you’re not sure, connect with your insurance agent to check and raise them if you need to.
If your home has been damaged by hail, you’ll want to file a claim as soon as possible. With American Family Insurance, you have a few options for how to file a homeowners insurance claim:
Once your claim is filed, one of our representatives will send an adjuster out to your home to assess the damage and determine if your homeowners insurance policy or additional coverages apply.
While your homeowners insurance can protect your home from hail damage, you’ll need to take some proactive steps to keep yourself and your loved ones safe from it, too. Here are a few hail safety tips for you to keep in mind:
If the weather forecast predicts hail, make sure everyone is indoors before the storm hits. While most hail is pretty small, it can sometimes get to the size of a baseball, causing a lot of damage not only to your car or home, but you as well.
Hail can be damaging to glass and sometimes even break through windows and skylights and cause a mess in your home. Keep away from windows and skylights to avoid broken glass.
If possible, get your car in the garage or under something solid to protect it from hail damage.
Hail damage can be unpredictable and expensive to repair. Make sure you’re covered for storms by connecting with your American Family Insurance agent to review your policy.
Related Topics: Home Insurance , Insurance Needs , Safety Tips
