Will Your Home Insurance Pay for Your New Roof? Here's How to Find Out

A new roof is expensive, with the average cost coming in at around $10,000, and some roofs costing much more (mine cost me over $40,000 when I replaced it recently!)

With such a big price tag, many homeowners worry about how they are going to pay for a new roof unless they have a lot of money in savings. It's common for property owners in need of a roof to wonder whether there's a chance their homeowners insurance policy might cover it.

While homeowners insurance is designed to help people cope with huge repair and replacement costs, this unfortunately does not necessarily mean it will pay for a roof. There are situations when an insurer will foot the bill, but there are also plenty of circumstances when it won't.

Here's what property owners need to know to determine if their roof will be covered by their homeowners insurance policy.

Roof repair for wear and tear is never covered

The first and most important thing that property owners need to be aware of is that homeowners insurance will never cover a roof that is damaged due to age, wear and tear, or negligence.

Roofs get old and worn out. This is just a part of normal home maintenance that homeowners are responsible for. Because of that, property owners need to have a maintenance account they maintain for things like a new roof (or other wear-and-tear issues that aren't covered, like when an air conditioner gets old).

A good rule of thumb is to save 1% of the home's value annually in a savings account earmarked for repairs. That way, when insurance doesn't cover a new roof, there's money available to pay for it.

Here's when roof repair or replacement might be paid for

The good news, though, is that roof repair or replacement is paid for in certain circumstances. Specifically, when a roof is damaged by a weather event, like a hail storm, or because a tree falls on it, or something else unexpected like that happens, homeowners insurance will usually pay for any necessary fixes.

To find out what kinds of situations would lead to an insurer paying for roof repair, property owners should take a close look at their policies. Insurance policies are divided into two types:

• Open peril policies, which pay for any damages not resulting from an excluded cause.
• Named peril policies, which pay for damages caused by perils or problems named in the policy.

Homeowners with a named peril policy can see exactly what situations would lead to an insurer paying for roof replacement by looking at the list of covered disasters their policy protects against. Usually, this would include things like fires, vandalism, falling trees, hail storms, and other weather events. Those who have an open peril policy can look at what's excluded (usually, things like floods) and then assume their insurer will pay for damage from any cause not specifically mentioned.

Asking an insurance agent can also be a quick and easy way to find out if a new roof would be covered. It's best to have a conversation with an agent about what exactly the insurer will and won't pay for before disaster strikes. So property owners who aren't sure about their coverage should consider calling their agent today so they can better understand what risks they're transferring to an insurer -- and what they need to be prepared for on their own.