Do you know what an ACV homeowners policy is? Because if you don't have a replacement cost policy, you might want to read this

It would be impossible to read and understand a homeowners policy the first couple of times you tried. Even if you are smart. Even if you are a lawyer. They are complicated to read and contain migraine inducing legalese that is purposefully written to put you at a disadvantage. But you won't know this until you start to research the case law going back a hundred years. And it sounds like you are covered the whole time, and they will tell you how fair they are. Until the end. Then you will find out that they are fair. They are paying you exactly what they said they would pay you in the 65 page policy you thought was good insurance.

The policy you have buried away with your files, that you have never read, will probably be read for the first time right after you discover that you have a big claim. Mine was still sealed in the envelope it came in because I didn't even open it. And good luck trying to understand it the day after your roof blew away and you look up to see the rain pouring through your open roof and seeping through your floors.

If this has happened to you, let me save you the trouble of wondering what the insurance company is going to pay for. The answer is: it depends. If you have a policy that is "Replacement Cost" you are in much better shape than if your policy says "Actual Cash Value". Because if it is an ACV policy, they are going to pay you a lot less than it will cost to fix your property. Now re-read that and let it sink in..................

With actual cash value, if your roof is destroyed and it is 10 years old, they will pay you the value of the roof right before the storm hit. So if a new roof is $10,000 dollars and the old one was on the 10th year of its 15 year expected life, they will only pay $3,333 minus your deductible. My deductible was $2,500.

Uh huh.

So call your agent today, find out what kind of policy you have and make sure you learn from this mistake. You will be glad you did.

REMEMBER:  ALWAYS GET REPLACEMENT COST COVERAGE!