Realtor Training. Lesson 6: How the age of the roof and hail affect your buyer.

Hail is something that impacts all of us in the Denver Metro area.

“Colorado’s damaging hail season is considered to be from mid-April to mid-September. Colorado’s Front Range is located in the heart of “Hail Alley,” which receives the highest frequency of large hail in North America and most of the world, so residents usually can count on three or four catastrophic (defined as at least $25 million in insured damage) hailstorms every year.

In the last 10 years, hailstorms have caused more than $5 billion in insured damage in Colorado. As a result, up to one-half of your homeowners insurance premium may be going toward hail and wind damage costs.” Rocky Mountain Insurance Information Association.

Question: If I am the buyer’s agent, will the home inspection see if the roof has hail damage?

Answer:  The home inspector is a specialist in finding all kinds of problems that a home has.  Too often, they are not a specialist in finding hail damage.

If the home that your client is buying has a roof that is a few years old, we recommend that you have a roofing specialist look very closely at the roof to see if there is hail damage.  If they find hail damage, you can help your buyer get a new roof!  You can ask the seller to file a claim on their homeowners insurance policy.

If your client buys a home with preexisting hail damage, it can cause problems for them if they try to file a hail claim in the future.  The claims adjustor can say “look at this damage, this is preexisting damage, so we will not cover anything.”

Question: Can I get homeowners insurance on a home with a really old and damaged roof?

Answer:  No and yes.  No because a good homeowners insurance company will not insure a roof that is not in good condition.  Yes because we have access to “surplus lines” homeowners insurance companies that will insure just about anything.  If the roof is not in good shape, they can insure the home but exclude the roof.

How does the age of the roof affect homeowners insurance premiums?

The age of the roof is one of the rating factors that has the greatest impact on a homeowners insurance premium.  The newer the roof, the lower the homeowners insurance premium will be.