Home › Homeowner Toolkit › Deductibles, ACV & RCV — In Plain English
The three insurance terms that decide what a hail claim is actually worth to you — actual cash value, replacement cost, and percentage deductibles — explained with real numbers.
Every insurance policy is different. This guide is general education to help you ask better questions — it is not legal or insurance advice. Your policy documents and your state insurance department are the final word.
Three phrases in your policy decide most of the money in a hail claim. None of them are complicated — they’re just usually explained badly. Here they are with real numbers.
The deductible is your share — the amount subtracted from any claim payment. The catch: many policies in hail country use a separate wind/hail deductible set as a percentage of your dwelling coverage, not a flat number. If your home is insured for $500,000 with a 2% wind/hail deductible, your share is $10,000 — even if the "all other perils" deductible on the same policy is $1,000. Look up which one you have today; it’s one line in your declarations page.
Say your 15-year-old roof would cost $30,000 to replace new. Replacement Cost Value (RCV) coverage pays what it costs to replace it today. Actual Cash Value (ACV) pays replacement cost minus depreciation — the roof’s "used" value. If the insurer depreciates 50% for age and wear, ACV is $15,000. Same storm, same roof, $15,000 difference.
Under RCV, insurers typically pay in two stages: first the ACV amount, then the depreciation they withheld — but only after you actually complete the repairs and submit the invoice, and only within a deadline (often 6–24 months). Miss the deadline and the RCV policy quietly pays like an ACV one. Put the date on your calendar the day the estimate arrives.
The deductible is real money — anyone who says otherwise is a red flag: You pay your deductible to your contractor as your share of the work. A contractor who offers to "waive," "eat," or "rebate" it is proposing insurance fraud with your name on the claim — it’s illegal in most states, and it’s the single most reliable scam signal in storm work. Details in Roofing Scam Red Flags.
Three questions that clarify everything: Ask your agent: (1) What is my wind/hail deductible in dollars? (2) Is my roof on RCV or ACV — and does that change as it ages? (3) What is my deadline to recover depreciation after a claim? Ten minutes, and you’ll understand your policy better than most policyholders ever do.