Carry cost
Percentage deductibles and actual-cash-value roofs translated into the cash you need on the day of a loss.
Cash needed on the worst day
Computed
The policy
Percentage deductibles are charged against this limit, not against the damage.
Schedules that settle at actual cash value deduct depreciation from the payout.
Open claim
The withheld depreciation is typically recoverable for twelve months from the filing.
Percentage deductibles
The roof
What a contractor would charge today, not what the roof cost when it went on.
Peril by peril
The roof, at settlement
This is a policy reading, not an underwriting opinion. Coverage terms, endorsements and exclusions decide the claim.
A 5% named-storm deductible on a $500,000 dwelling limit is $25,000 before the carrier pays anything. It is charged against the coverage amount, not against the damage. On a $40,000 loss that deductible is most of the claim.
A settlement at actual cash value withholds depreciation. Fifteen years into a twenty-year shingle, the withheld share is about three quarters of replacement cost. It is recoverable only if the work is completed and invoiced inside the policy window.
A deductible and a depreciation gap arrive together on the same storm. The headline here adds them, because a household needs one figure to compare against its liquid reserves, not five.
peril deductible = Coverage A × peril share
depreciation = replacement cost × min(1, age / expected life)
carrier pays = replacement cost − depreciation (ACV only)
liquid exposure = max(peril deductible, flat) + depreciation withheld
Roof lives are InterNACHI service-life figures. Insurers apply their own schedules and endorsements, so the depreciation here is an estimate of the arithmetic, not of the adjuster's decision.