Hail Damage in Missouri: What Insurance May Cover

Missouri hail

Hail on a Missouri house is a homeowners question. Hail on the car in the driveway is an auto question. Flood is neither of them, and a standard policy does not become a hail policy just because the storm was bad.

Which policy answers

Hail dents metal, bruises shingles, and breaks skylights and windows. If the house is insured on a form that includes windstorm and hail, that damage is a property claim, subject to the deductible and to any roof limit the form actually contains. If the car is insured for comprehensive, the dents on the car are a comprehensive claim. Collision pays for a crash. It does not pay for ice that fell on a parked car.

There is no Missouri statute quoted on this page that says every homeowners policy covers hail. Forms differ. Some pay replacement cost on the roof. Some pay actual cash value, which is replacement cost minus depreciation. Some settle cosmetic denting differently from a hole that lets water in, or they put wind and hail on their own deductible. The declarations page and the roof endorsement control. A neighbor’s check is not your policy.

How the house claim is figured

Start with the dwelling limit and the deductible. A flat deductible is a dollar amount. A percentage deductible is a percent of the dwelling limit, Coverage A, not a percent of the repair bill. On a $250,000 Coverage A limit, a 1 percent hail deductible is $2,500. On a $400,000 limit, 2 percent is $8,000. Those are examples so the arithmetic is visible. They are not Missouri averages, and your policy may use a flat deductible instead.

Actual cash value subtracts depreciation. A 15-year-old roof does not produce the same check as a two-year-old roof in the same storm with the same deductible. Replacement cost, when the form grants it, pays to repair or replace without that depreciation subtraction, up to the limit you bought and subject to any insurance-to-value clause in the form. Read the percentage in your form. Do not borrow a percentage from a Texas policy and apply it to a Missouri claim.

Matching is the fight over whether undamaged slopes have to be replaced so the roof looks like one roof. Some forms say yes. Some pay only the damaged portion. This page is not stating a Missouri matching law, because it is not quoting one. Ask the adjuster which clause they are using, and get that answer on the estimate.

The day of the storm

  1. Photograph the roof, the gutters, the soft metal on the air conditioner and the flue cap, and any ceiling stain. Date the photos. A wide shot and a close shot beat a pile of identical close shots.
  2. Make temporary repairs so the house does not get worse, and keep the receipts. A tarp over a leak is protecting the property. Tearing the roof off before anyone has seen it turns the cause of loss into an argument.
  3. Open the claim and ask whether hail uses the all-peril deductible or a separate wind and hail deductible.
  4. Get a written estimate from a roofer who will stand behind the scope. You do not have to sign away the claim to the contractor before you have read the policy.
  5. If the offer does not match the damage, compare it line by line with the roofer’s estimate. A price dispute is not the same thing as a denial.

Age is not hail. A roof at the end of its life can fail in a storm and still be adjusted as old roofing. Photos from the day of the storm, and a note that separates impact marks from ordinary granule loss, are what that argument uses.

The car, the fence, and the water afterward

Comprehensive is the auto coverage that responds to hail on the vehicle, if you bought it and you pay that deductible. Liability does not repair your own car. If you dropped comprehensive, the storm is a bill, not a claim. Rental reimbursement, if the car is undrivable and you bought that coverage, is a separate limit.

A fence, a shed, and a detached garage usually sit under other structures, with their own limit. They are not automatically insured for the full dwelling amount. The declarations page lists that limit.

Rain that comes in because hail broke a window can be part of the hail claim. Water that rises from a creek or sheets across the yard is flood. A homeowners policy does not cover flood, and flood is not one of the named perils on the Missouri FAIR Plan dwelling form. If both happened the same night, say so when you report the claim. Folding them into one story tangles the covered part with the excluded part.

If the only policy you can get is the FAIR Plan

The Missouri FAIR Plan, the Missouri Property Insurance Placement Facility, is a last-resort market for property that could not be placed with a voluntary company. It was established in October 1969. A Missouri-licensed agent has to submit the application. For a one- to four-family dwelling, the plan’s DP 00 01 is a named-peril policy, and the perils it lists include windstorm and hail, along with fire, lightning, explosion, riot or civil commotion, aircraft, vehicles, smoke, volcanic eruption, and vandalism and malicious mischief. That is the plan’s summary. The form you are issued still controls, and the plan tells people to read it.

The maximum for buildings and contents combined on that dwelling policy is $200,000. Theft is optional and separate, from $1,000 to $25,000, and only if contents, extended coverage, and vandalism are already on the policy. Hail on a house whose rebuild cost is above that cap is not solved by assuming the cap will move. The plan’s published phones are 314-421-0170 and, inside Missouri, 800-392-7240.

A FAIR Plan policy is basic on purpose. Do not cancel a voluntary policy you already have because a quote somewhere else was declined. The decline applies to the quote. Your current policy ends when you cancel it or the company cancels it.

Buying a house that has already been hailed on

If you are under contract, the inspection is when the roof age and any open storm damage should come out. Underwriters insure the next storm, not a dry ceiling today. A decline three days before closing is a contract problem. Ask for the yes or no while you can still negotiate repairs. The lender wants a bound policy in your name, with the lender as mortgagee, before funding. The seller’s policy insures the seller.

A percentage deductible ignores the size of the repair. A small roof bill and a large roof bill can face the same dollar deductible if that deductible is a percent of the dwelling limit. Know the dollar amount before hail season, not when the adjuster is in the driveway.

Questions after a Missouri hailstorm

Does homeowners insurance always cover hail in Missouri?

No. Many forms include windstorm and hail. Yours might exclude it, cap the roof, or settle the roof at actual cash value. The form controls.

Should I file if the damage might be under the deductible?

If a written estimate is clearly under the deductible, a claim still creates a claim record. If water is coming in, or the number is close, call the agent and describe it before you decide. Do not invent damage to clear a deductible.

Is hail on the car the same deductible as the house?

No. The house uses the homeowners deductible. The car uses the comprehensive deductible, if you have comprehensive. One storm, two policies.

If you do not know the roof settlement or the hail deductible on the policy you have, start a home quote and have the agent read the declarations page against it.

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