Policy terms
Your deductible is not a fee. It is your share of the loss
People discover the shape of their deductible at the worst possible moment. It is a five-minute check on the declarations page and it changes how you think about whether to file at all.
The three forms
| Form | How it is calculated | What to watch |
|---|---|---|
| Flat | A fixed amount, subtracted from the covered loss | Straightforward. Check it has not drifted upward at a renewal you did not read. |
| Percentage | A percentage of the dwelling coverage limit | It is a percentage of the insured value of the house, not of the damage, and it rises whenever the dwelling limit does. |
| Separate wind and hail | A distinct deductible, flat or percentage, applying only to wind and hail losses | This is the one that surprises people in Texas, because wind and hail are exactly the perils that damage roofs here. TDI tells homeowners to ask their agent whether it differs from the all-other-perils deductible. |
A single Texas policy can carry two of these at once: a modest flat deductible for fire, theft and everything else, and a separate, larger, percentage-based deductible that applies to wind and hail. The second one is the one that applies to your roof. Almost every conversation about a roof claim in this market is really a conversation about that number, which is why it gets a page to itself.
What Texas law requires
This is unusually clear-cut. Texas law requires a person insured under a property insurance policy to pay the deductible applicable to a first-party claim under that policy. It is a criminal offense — a Class B misdemeanor — for a seller of goods or services that will be paid from property insurance proceeds to pay, waive, absorb, rebate, credit, or in any other way help the insured avoid paying that deductible. And a contract for work reasonably expected to be paid wholly or partly from insurance proceeds must carry a specific bold notice saying both of those things, once the contract price passes a threshold set in the statute.
The enforcement mechanism is the one you feel: your insurer may refuse to release withheld recoverable depreciation until you produce reasonable proof that you paid the deductible. So the paperwork matters. Keep the canceled check, the receipt, the card statement or the signed payment plan in the claim file.
A contractor who offers to absorb, waive, discount, rebate or "work in" your deductible is proposing that the loss be represented to your carrier as costing more than it does. In Texas that is a crime for them and a misrepresented claim with your signature on it for you. It is also, reliably, a signal about how the rest of the job will be run. TDI’s advice is unambiguous: hire a different contractor.
The legitimate versions of the same conversation exist and are explicitly contemplated by the law: payment plans and financing arrangements that require the deductible to be paid in full over time. Those are handled openly and written down, and the executed agreement is itself acceptable proof of payment.
Why this changes the decision to file
If the damage is a split pipe boot and some lifted shingles along one rake, and your wind and hail deductible is a percentage of a substantial dwelling limit, filing a claim accomplishes nothing except putting a claim on your record. Knowing the scale of the damage before you report it is the whole reason to have the roof documented first.
If the damage is across three slopes with unsealed courses throughout, the arithmetic is different. Either way it should be arithmetic, not a guess. The claim or pay out of pocket tool works through the same question without producing a figure.
Finding yours
- Open your declarations page — usually the first page of the policy packet.
- Find the deductible section. There will very likely be more than one line.
- Identify the separate wind, hail, windstorm or named-storm deductible, and whether it is stated as an amount or as a percentage.
- If it is a percentage, multiply it by the dwelling coverage limit shown on the same page. That product is the real number, and it is the one that applies to your roof.
- If you are on the coast, check whether wind and hail are excluded from this policy altogether and covered by a separate windstorm policy with its own deductible.
- Write the result down somewhere you will find it after a storm, and check it again at every renewal.
Verified as of September 24, 2026. We re-check these pages quarterly.
Not sure whether the damage is above or below your deductible?
Request a free inspectionDoes the deductible apply once per claim or once per year?
Per claim, on standard homeowner policies. TDI puts it plainly: for home and auto policies the deductible is applied to each claim. Two separate storms are two separate losses with two separate deductibles, which is worth remembering in a year with an active spring and an active tropical season.
Can I raise my deductible to lower my premium?
Usually yes, and it is a genuine trade-off rather than a trick — TDI notes that a higher deductible generally means a lower premium. The question is whether you could comfortably pay the higher amount on the day you need to, and with a percentage wind and hail deductible that amount is larger than it looks.
Is the deductible subtracted before or after depreciation?
Carriers generally calculate the replacement cost, apply depreciation to reach actual cash value, then subtract the deductible. The order matters and it is worth asking your adjuster to walk you through it on your own claim.
My deductible went up and nobody told me.
Check the declarations page against last year’s. A percentage deductible rises automatically whenever the dwelling limit is adjusted upward, which many policies do at renewal without the percentage itself changing. Your company should tell you when it changes your roof cover; the percentage quietly growing is a different mechanism, and it is on you to notice.
All work is performed by insured local roofing professionals. Texas does not license roofing contractors at state level, so insurance, references and a written scope are what there is to check.