Hello. Last week we had hail come through. Some was large marble size/slightly smaller than golf ball. Roof is 15 years old. I don't know if it has any damage or not. We have never made a home claim. We have been with State Farm for 15 years. I called and said I don't know if there was any damage but could they send someone out. She said they could but it would initiate a claim. I said "What if they come out and there is no damage?" She said it would just show up as zero paid. She said I could have a roofer/contractor come out and see if it had damage and if it did then file the claim. I figure most any roofer is going to say there is damage. Having never made a claim I was wondering from any of you that may have experience/thoughts. Thank you for your time.

Just keep in mind, the "claim" is recorded, even if it is $0.00. If you have a rate increase, most likely, you will not be able to change companies to get a lower rate because the claim will show up if you try to change coverage and a lot of companies will not take on a risk that has had a loss in the last 5 years. Expect a rate increase if you have the adjuster come out, regardless of whether or not they pay anything. State Farm is notorious for this kind of stuff.

My advice, go up and take a look at it yourself. If there appears to be obvious damage, it might be worth it. If your roof is 15+ years old, there is a better than good chance they will call any damage you have, normal wear and tear. Even if it looks pretty rough.

I owned my own agency for 35 yrs in NY. Never represented State Farm and most importantly insurance runs state to state. Given the facts you presented, as your agent, I would recommend having the roof looked at by a contractor and go from there. 15 yrs, no claims says it all.

Is your policy Actual Cash Value or Replacement Cost?

Shingles can be tough to see damage on. I look in the gutters for granulars and look at all vents,gutters,and downspouts.
If they are dented, your shingles got beat on hard!

Exactly right bucksnbears.

X2 as others said get a professional or 3 to look

You should see "impact marks" on the shingles but have a roofer or 3 look at it to confirm. Check your gutters and all vents or anything else on the roof for dings or damage. Don't forget to look at window frames siding etc...

Here's a couple pics from when we got hit. The first one is on the "flat roof" patio. The second is regular shingles. On about a 15 year old roof. Also have each roofer count the layers of shingles. Code here says can't go more than 2 layers of shingles. I had the adjuster and 3 roofers inspect before it was noticed my roof had 2 layers of shingles, which meant all material came off down to sheathing.
Adjustments was a pain in the rump.

Most if not all roofing companies should offer free estimates. Make sure you're contacting established companies, as many times fly-by-night companies show up and take advantage of people after major storms.

To give you an idea, my wife and I are getting ready to sell our house and know the roof could use some work. So rather than be surprised by the inspector halfway through the sale, we elected to get some estimates on repairs and replacement. A total of 4 companies came out, 3 that I contacted and a 4th our realtor suggested.

Company 1 showed up, walked around the yard and said we needed a whole new roof on the house and garage and it would cost about $9k. Never got up on a ladder and was there and gone in 5 minutes.

Company 2 had 2 guys that went up with ladders and looked close at the shingles. They said the roof probably had 3-4 years left, but the garage roof needed to be replaced. Total for house and garage, around $8k.

Company 3 came and inspected it while in was gone, but quoted $7200 for house and garage replacement.

Company 4 went all out, even went up in the attic and looked at the guts of the roof and took video up on the roof of the garage with a gopro. They said they could repair the roof of the house for $400 but quoted almost double all the other companies for the garage roof replacement at $3,500.

Just a snapshot of the differences in each company, and why it pays to get multiple reputable estimates before doing anything.

I think I read somewhere that many insurance companies offer discounts to customers that don't make a claim right off the bat so that when you make a claim they can eliminate the discount and say they're not raising your rates, even though its exactly what they're doing. 15 years on asphalt shingles is pretty good and they probably need replacing anyway. That's like having collision insurance on a 30 year old car, the insurance company likely wouldn't pay enough on a claim to cover replacement with a comparable new car.

This as far as first look. Ask around if need be and get a reliable contractor to check it. As far as State Farm, I have had them forever and made three very expensive claims. It did not do any damage to my rates, I wouldn't worry about that.

Osky

Had a hail storm come through 5-6 yrs ago. Got enough money to put new roof and siding on everything. I did the work my self and only used 1/3 of what they gave me. Only claim I ever had rates didn't go up. Best thing that could have happened. In a few more years I would have done all that work out of my own pocket. Instead, they paid me to do it. Turned out to be quite a blessing.

Plenty of folks will let a roof get really bad waiting for a storm to make a claim.

Claims like “mysterious disappearance” and theft are red flags. Hail should not be.