How long does a roof last?

Ideally a roof with proper ventilation and good quality shingles, God willing relatively good weather, a

roof can maybe look brand new for 10-15 years and can functionally last for maybe even 20-30 years.

Now if you know you have good quality shingles does this mean that you should wait 20-30 years

before you get your roof replaced? I don’t think any roofing company would recommend waiting that

long and the reason for this is because of a business practice that most insurance companies willingly

participate in. Let me elaborate, the value of a roof to an insurance company depreciates similar to

how a new car depreciates the moment it is driven out of the dealership lot. Which is fair considering

over the years a roof, depending on where you live, will be exposed to varying degrees of wind, rain,

hail, hot and cold temperatures. All of which will attribute to the aging and erosion of the shingles on the roof.

Now when the insurance company is paying for the roof they split the total cost into two separate

checks, the 1st check you receive from the insurance carrier is called the ACV or Actual Cash Value

check, basically how much money the old roof is currently worth.

The 2nd check is called the Depreciation check, which is the amount of value the old roof has lost over the years. Now if we add

these two checks together along with what your deductible is, we get what the grand total of a new

roof is called, the Replacement Cost Value or RCV, which is the total sum paid to your contractor to

replace a roof. Now that you understand the basic terminology of the key terms or words used in a

loss estimate, imagine the Depreciation was designated as Non-Refundable Depreciation by your

insurance carrier. No, it’s not just you, it is as bad as it sounds.

To help you, the reader, understand how serious this is, here is a simple example – Mr. X is our

homeowner for this example and his roof is 18 years old. Mr. X’s insurance carrier just approved his

roof for replacement; Mr. X receives his loss estimate, the RCV for a new roof is $20,000, the ACV

check from the insurance carrier is $13,000 and Mr. X’s deductible is $1,000, and the insurance

carrier has designated $6,000 as Non-Refundable Depreciation! This means the insurance carrier is

only going to send Mr. X a single check for $13,000 to go towards his new roof, so not only does Mr.

X have to pay his $1,000 deductible but he has to come out of pocket an additional $6,000! You don’t

have to be a mathematician to figure out that Mr. X is paying $7,000 to have his roof replaced, almost

half the cost of a full roof replacement for his home. Now if you think that the insurance carrier isn’t

committing highway robbery just yet, then how about we add the fact that Mr. X has paid his

premiums every year, on time, for the last 15 years. Never once making a late payment, even when

the insurance carrier raised his rates out of nowhere.

Non-Refundable Depreciation is just another slimy way for your insurance carrier to avoid paying

completely for a brand new roof. We don’t know when an insurance company is going to designate

the depreciation as non-refundable because that information is buried somewhere deep within your

insurance policy, each policy can be different from the next. And if you want to sue your insurance

carrier, know that the wording of the insurance policy is made intentionally vague so that it can be

interpreted two different ways.

We at AMP Restoration & Roofing recommend that if your roof is over 8 years old then every year

you should have a roofing contractor that you trust come out to your home and do a free inspection of

the property. This is the best way to catch storm damage to your roof as early as possible and if no

damage is found then you’ve gained peace of mind for absolutely no cost or obligation to you at all.