(214) 807-0414Request an assessmentClaim terms explained
Three terms cause more confusion on a roof claim than everything else combined, and they usually arrive together on a document nobody explained. What follows is a plain description of what the terms mean. It is not advice about your policy, and it is not a prediction of what your carrier will do. Your policy language and your carrier govern both.
In short
RCV is what it would cost to replace the damaged property with materials of like kind and quality at current prices. It is a figure about the repair, not about your policy. What portion of it a carrier pays depends entirely on how your policy is written.
01
On a replacement-cost policy the initial payment commonly reflects actual cash value, with the deductible subtracted and depreciation withheld. That is why a first cheque can look far smaller than the estimate it came attached to. It is not necessarily the final position, but we are not the ones who can tell you what the final position will be.
02
Some policies settle certain components, roofs among them, at actual cash value only. Others apply a schedule based on the age of the covering. These provisions vary and they matter a great deal to the outcome. Read the policy and ask your carrier or agent directly what applies to yours.
03
Carriers commonly require evidence that the work was actually performed before considering any withheld amount. We keep a complete record of scope, materials, dates and completed work because that record should exist regardless. What a carrier does with it is a decision we take no part in and will not predict.
Questions
We will not tell you that. Whether any depreciation is recoverable depends on your policy language and your carrier's determination. What we can do is document the finished work properly — the scope, the products, the dates and the result — so that the question is answered against evidence rather than against a description of it.
A payment and a repair cost are different figures. Deductible, depreciation, policy limits and scope differences all separate them. Your carrier can explain how their figure was built; we can explain how ours was.
No. Reading and interpreting policy language is not contracting work and we do not do it. Your agent, your carrier, or a licensed public adjuster is the right place for that question.
Some carriers depreciate labour and some do not, and where it is applied the method varies. It makes a considerable difference on a roof, because labour is a large share of what a roof costs. This is a question about your policy and about how your carrier built their figure, and it is a fair one to put to them directly. We can explain how our own estimate is built. We cannot explain theirs.
They are usually shown as separate subtractions from the same starting figure rather than one applied to the other: a claim summary commonly lists the replacement cost, then depreciation, then the deductible, then the amount being paid at that stage. If your summary does not read that way, ask your carrier to walk through the document line by line. It is their calculation and it is reasonable to ask them to explain it. We will not guess at someone else's arithmetic.
Assessment request
Short, routing-only questions. Nothing here asks you to diagnose the roof yourself.