Filing a Hail Damage Insurance Claim in Austin: The Homeowner's Playbook

Central Texas has been on a hail-heavy stretch. The April 2024 event dropped 2 to 2.5 inch stones across Travis, Williamson, and Hays counties, and we are still filing claims and finishing work from storms since. If your roof took hail from a storm and you have not filed, most Texas HO-3 policies give you 2 years from the date of loss to file suit if the carrier denies you. That clock started the day the hail fell, so pull your declarations page tonight and confirm your exact deadline. Around 80% of the properly documented claims we walk close covered, and the homeowner pays nothing past the deductible.

I want to walk you through the whole thing the way I would across a kitchen table. My brother-in-law Benny has installed about 7,000 roofs in Austin over 27 years. I have sat through more adjuster meetings than I can count. Here is the playbook.

Step 1: Figure out if you actually have damage worth filing

Hail damage hides. A roof can look fine from the driveway and still be totaled in insurance terms.

Here is what Benny checks first, and what you can check from the ground without climbing anything:

• **Dented A/C fins.** Walk to your condenser unit and look at the metal fins on the sides. If they look peppered or crushed, hail that size hit your shingles too.
• **Dented soffit vents and gutters.** Soft aluminum takes hail marks that asphalt hides. Dings in your gutters or downspouts are a tell.
• **Broken or torn window screens.** Hail that shreds a screen was moving fast enough to bruise a shingle.
• **Granule piles at the downspout.** Grab a flashlight and look where your downspouts drain. A handful of loose granules after 2 inch hail means your shingles lost their armor.
• **Soft hits on the shingles themselves.** These are bruises, not holes. Press one and it feels like a bad spot on a peach. This is the damage adjusters and homeowners both miss, and it is what kills a roof 18 months later.

One dent does not make a claim. A pattern of them across the slopes that faced the storm usually does. If you see 2 or 3 of the tells above, keep reading.

Step 2: Get a free inspection with photos before you call your carrier

Do not call your insurance company first. Call a roofer first, and here is the reason.

The moment you file, the carrier opens a claim on your record whether they pay it or not. If you file blind and the adjuster finds "insufficient damage," you now have a denied claim following your property around. Worse, if they approve a partial scope, you can get stuck at actual cash value on a roof that deserved full replacement.

A proper inspection before you file gives you three things. Photos with chalk circles on every hit. Exact measurements of the roof, slope by slope. A written scope of what a full repair actually costs. Now you are filing with evidence instead of a hunch, and the adjuster is responding to documentation instead of writing the first draft alone.

We do this inspection free and we put the findings in writing within 48 hours. If Benny gets up there and the roof is fine, we tell you it is fine and you saved yourself a claim on your record. That happens on about 1 in 4 inspections, and those homeowners call us back years later because we did not sell them a roof they did not need.

Step 3: File the claim, and watch your words

Filing takes one phone call to the claims number on your policy. Keep it short and factual.

Say this: "My property was hit by hail on [date]. I have had the roof inspected and there is hail damage. I want to file a claim with a date of loss of the storm date."

Do not speculate. Do not guess about age, condition, or how long something has been leaking. And never volunteer the phrase "wear and tear." Wear and tear is excluded on every homeowner policy in Texas. Hand the carrier that phrase and you have written their denial letter for them. You are reporting storm damage with a date of loss. That is the whole conversation.

Write down the claim number, the adjuster's name, and the inspection date before you hang up.

Step 4: The adjuster visit

The carrier will send an adjuster to your roof, usually within 1 to 2 weeks. Do not let that adjuster walk your roof alone.

Not because adjusters are crooked. Most are fair people handling 8 to 12 inspections a day after a storm like April 2024. At that pace things get missed, and the misses are always the same items: ridge cap, drip edge, ice and water shield, damaged decking, and the code upgrades the City of Austin and surrounding jurisdictions require when a roof is replaced. Those five items can be $3,000 to $8,000 on a typical Austin home.

Have your roofer at that appointment. When we meet the adjuster, we bring our photos, our measurements, and our scope, and we walk every slope together. Anything the first estimate misses gets handled through a supplement, which is just a documented request to add legitimate items to the claim. Supplements are normal. Carriers process them every day. But somebody has to know what got left off, and that is not a job for a homeowner standing on their own shingles.

Step 5: After the check clears

Your first check will probably be smaller than the estimate, and that is normal. Here is why.

Most policies pay in two stages. The first check is actual cash value, meaning replacement cost minus depreciation for the age of your roof. The depreciation gets held back until the work is actually done. Once we complete the roof and send the carrier a final invoice with photos, they release the holdback. On a replacement cost policy, that recoverable depreciation belongs in the project, and the roofer collects it as part of the contract price after completion.

Code upgrades are billable too if your policy carries ordinance or law coverage, and most do. Decking replacement, drip edge, proper ventilation. If code requires it, the carrier owes it, but only if somebody documents it and asks.

One thing we will never do is waive or eat your deductible. Texas Insurance Code 27.02 makes that a crime, a Class B misdemeanor or worse depending on the amount. Any roofer who offers to "take care of" your deductible just told you they are comfortable committing insurance fraud with your name on the paperwork. Walk away.

The 4 mistakes that cost Austin homeowners real money

**Signing the check over before supplements are filed.** Once the roofer has the money, your leverage to get the missed items added is gone. Supplements first, final payment after completion.

**Letting a storm chaser touch the roof.** After April 2024, out-of-state crews flooded Austin. When the workmanship fails in year 3, the truck and the warranty are both back in Oklahoma.

**Accepting the first estimate as final.** The first adjuster estimate is a starting point, not a verdict. Ridge cap, drip edge, ice and water shield, decking, and code items get missed constantly.

**Missing the deadline.** Most Texas policies give you 2 years from the date of loss, some carriers write it tighter. Check your policy today, not next spring.

Get your roof looked at this week

If a storm hit your neighborhood and nobody has put eyes on your roof, fix that now. We will inspect it free, and within 48 hours you get an exact written number and straight answers about whether a claim makes sense.

Call us at 737-802-2272 or use the quote tool on the homepage. Benny or one of our crew leads will handle the inspection personally. No pressure, no games, just 27 years of Austin roofs telling you the truth about yours.