Either one, depending on a single clause in your homeowners policy — Arizona law does not decide it for you. If your policy settles roof surfacing at replacement cost, the carrier pays what a new roof costs today, less your deductible. If it settles at actual cash value, or runs the loss through a roof payment schedule, you collect the depreciated value and fund the difference yourself.

Does home insurance pay full price for a new roof or depreciated value in Arizona?

The honest answer is that both outcomes are legal, both are common on Arizona homes, and the only way to know which one applies to you is to read the loss settlement language attached to your own policy. Nothing in Arizona’s insurance code forces a carrier to hand you a brand-new roof after a hailstorm. The contract you signed decides it.

Two terms do most of the work here, so it helps to define them before going further.

Replacement cost value (RCV) is what it costs today to tear off the damaged roof and install a comparable new one, using current material and labor pricing. It does not subtract anything for the fact that your roof was fifteen years old on the morning of the storm.

Actual cash value (ACV) is that same replacement cost minus depreciation — a reduction for age, wear, and remaining service life. A shingle roof two-thirds of the way through its rated life is worth substantially less than a new one, and an ACV settlement reflects that.

Many Arizona homeowners assume they bought the first one. Quite a few discover after a monsoon hailstorm that they have the second, or that they have a hybrid: replacement cost on the house itself, but a separate, narrower rule just for roof surfacing. That split is the detail that surprises people. Your siding, stucco, windows, and interior can be settled at replacement cost while the roof shingles or tiles are settled on a schedule tied to how old the roof is.

The good news is that this is knowable in advance. You do not need a claim, an adjuster, or a public adjuster to find out. You need the right pages of your policy and about ten minutes.

Where the roof settlement clause actually sits in your policy

Start with your declarations page — the summary pages at the front of the packet showing your name, dwelling limit, deductibles, and a list of forms and endorsements by number and edition date. That endorsement list is where roof settlement rules announce themselves, usually in a line of text most people skim past.

Names vary by carrier, but the wording that signals a roof-specific rule tends to follow a pattern. Look for anything containing:

Roof surfacing payment schedule — the clearest signal that a table of payable percentages applies to your roof.
Windstorm or hail loss to roof surfacing — actual cash value loss settlement, or similar phrasing with “ACV” in the title.
Limited roof loss settlement or roof surfacing loss settlement.
Cosmetic damage exclusion, sometimes specific to roof surfacing, sometimes broader to include metal siding and gutters.
Roof surfacing extended coverage or replacement cost on roof surfacing — language that can run the other direction and restore replacement cost on a qualifying roof.

The word to anchor on is surfacing. In most policy forms, roof surfacing means the shingles, tiles, or membrane you can see from the street — not the decking, trusses, or structure underneath. A carrier can treat the surfacing one way and the structure another.

Here is the part that trips people up: the declarations page lists the endorsement, but the actual schedule — the table of ages and percentages — is often a single attached page sitting behind the base policy form, dozens of pages into the PDF. It is not written into the body of the main form, so searching only the main form will not find it.

If you have a digital copy, open it and search for these strings: “roof surfacing,” “actual cash value,” “payment schedule,” “cosmetic,” “windstorm or hail,” and “age of roof.” Also read the loss settlement condition in Section I of the base form, then check whether an endorsement overrides it. An endorsement beats the base form every time.

If all you have is a declarations page — which is what most people keep — ask your agent to send the complete policy packet including every endorsement by form number and edition date, and specifically ask whether a roof payment schedule is attached. That request takes a minute to make and settles the question for good.

How a roof payment schedule works: age, material, and the percentage you actually collect

A roof payment schedule is a table. The rows are roof age bands — something like 0 to 5 years, 6 to 10, 11 to 15, and so on up to a cutoff. The entries are percentages of replacement cost the carrier will pay for a covered wind or hail loss to the roof surfacing. A newer roof sits near the top of the table and collects most or all of replacement cost. An older roof steps down, band by band, until the payable percentage is a fraction of what a new roof costs.

Many schedules then split by material, either as separate columns or as entirely separate tables. That split is why two neighbors on the same Gilbert street can take the same hail and receive very different checks.

Why tile and asphalt shingle are treated differently

Concrete and clay tile have a long service life. The tile itself can outlast the house’s original financing. Asphalt composition shingle has a shorter rated life, and in Arizona sun it often performs closer to the low end of that rating than the high end. Carriers price and schedule accordingly: shingle schedules tend to step down sooner and more steeply, while tile schedules may hold a higher payable percentage further out — or may be written with a different trigger entirely.

That different trigger is the piece Arizona tile owners should understand. On a tile roof, the water barrier is not the tile. It is the underlayment beneath it. Underlayment ages under heat load and is frequently the component that fails first, long before the tile does. So a schedule — or an underwriting inspection — may key off the age of the underlayment or the date of the last full tear-off and re-felt, not the date the tile was first laid. A homeowner who says “my tile roof is original, so it is twenty-eight years old” and a homeowner who says “the tile is original but the underlayment was replaced six years ago” may land in different rows of the same table, if the paperwork proves it.

What varies, and what does not

What varies: the age bands, the percentages, whether tile, metal, foam, and shingle get separate treatment, whether an inspection can restore replacement cost, and whether the schedule applies to all perils or only to wind and hail. Some carriers will not offer replacement cost on roof surfacing past a certain age at all. Some will, with a recent roof certification.

What does not vary: the schedule is a contract term, and it is applied after the loss whether or not you read it beforehand. An adjuster is not negotiating with you about the percentage. They are reading the table.

This is the part that genuinely requires someone to read your specific form. Two policies with similar premiums and identical dwelling limits can carry very different roof schedules, and the difference only shows up on the day it matters most.

What does actual cash value really mean for your out-of-pocket cost after a hailstorm?

Numbers make this concrete. The figures below are illustrative only — made-up round numbers chosen to show the mechanics, not market averages, not quotes, and not a prediction of what your roof or your claim would cost.

Illustrative scenario A: scheduled actual cash value

Say a hailstorm damages a sixteen-year-old asphalt shingle roof on a home insured with a $400,000 dwelling limit. A roofer estimates $20,000 to replace it. The policy carries a roof payment schedule that pays 60% of replacement cost for shingle roofs in the 16-to-20-year band, and the policy has a 2% wind and hail deductible.

Replacement cost estimate: $20,000
Scheduled payable amount at 60%: $12,000
Wind and hail deductible, 2% of $400,000: $8,000
Claim payment: $4,000
Homeowner funds: $16,000

Notice the order of operations. The schedule reduces the loss first, then the deductible comes off the reduced number. That sequence is why a scheduled ACV settlement on an older roof with a percentage deductible can produce a check that feels small relative to the damage.

Illustrative scenario B: replacement cost with recoverable depreciation

Same roof, same storm, same $20,000 estimate, same $8,000 deductible — but this policy settles roof surfacing at replacement cost with depreciation held back until the work is finished.

Replacement cost estimate: $20,000
Depreciation withheld initially: $8,000
First check (ACV $12,000 less the $8,000 deductible): $4,000
After the roof is completed and the final invoice is submitted, the withheld $8,000 is released
Total claim payment: $12,000; homeowner funds the $8,000 deductible

What recoverable depreciation means and how to actually collect it

Recoverable depreciation is the amount the carrier holds back at first payment and pays later, once you prove the repair or replacement was actually completed. It is not a bonus and it is not automatic. To collect it you generally have to complete the work, do it within the time limit stated in the loss settlement condition of your policy, and submit documentation — a final invoice showing the work performed and the amount paid, sometimes photos, sometimes a permit or certificate of completion.

Homeowners lose this money in two ordinary ways: they bank the first check and patch the roof instead of replacing it, or they finish the work and forget to send the invoice before the deadline passes. Put the deadline on a calendar the day the first payment arrives.

Separate wind and hail deductibles and cosmetic damage exclusions

Two more clauses stack on top of whatever settlement basis you have, and either can change the math more than the settlement basis itself.

A percentage wind and hail deductible. Instead of a flat dollar amount, this deductible is a percentage of your Coverage A dwelling limit — typically expressed on the declarations page as a separate line such as “Windstorm or Hail Deductible: 1%” or “2%.” On a house insured for $500,000, a 2% deductible is $10,000 for that peril, even if your all-other-perils deductible is $1,500. It applies per occurrence, and it applies to a fully covered claim. Raising a percentage deductible is one of the quieter ways a renewal premium stays flat while your exposure grows, so check that line every year rather than assuming it carried over unchanged.

A cosmetic damage exclusion. This endorsement removes coverage for damage that marks or dents roofing material without affecting its ability to shed water. Hail can scar the surface of a tile or dimple a metal panel while the roof keeps doing its job. With a cosmetic exclusion attached, that appearance damage is not a paid loss, even though it is visible from the street and may bother a future buyer or an HOA.

Cosmetic exclusions matter most on tile and metal roofs, which is exactly the material mix across much of Maricopa and Pima county. On the declarations page they appear in the endorsement list, often with “cosmetic” right in the form name. If you see one, ask what the carrier’s standard is for separating functional damage from cosmetic damage, because that line is where the disagreement happens after a storm.

What should you document before monsoon season, not after the adjuster leaves?

When a payment schedule is in play, proof of roof age is the most valuable document in your file. Everything else supports it. Build the file now, while the sky is clear and the records are easy to pull.

Roof age proof. The permit record from your city or town building department, the prior owner’s roofing invoice, the roof section of the home inspection report from your purchase, or a roofing contractor’s certification. If the underlayment was replaced separately from the tile, keep that invoice — it may be the date that actually matters.
Dated photographs. Shoot the roof surface from a ladder or from the ground with a zoom, plus ridge lines, valleys, flashing, and vents. Photograph the attic underside and any existing stains. Date-stamped images taken before a storm are hard to argue with afterward.
Repair and maintenance records. Invoices for tile repair, re-felting, flashing work, sealant, and any prior claim repairs. These show the roof was maintained, which matters because wear, deterioration, and neglect are standard exclusions.
Drainage and tree maintenance. Gutter cleaning, scupper clearing, and trimming limbs back from the roofline. Monsoon wind damage often starts with a branch.

What happens if you cannot prove the roof’s age? The carrier estimates it — from an underwriting inspection, from aerial imagery, from the home’s year built, or from the adjuster’s visual assessment of wear. That estimate becomes the row in the schedule, and it rarely lands in your favor. Your own underwriting inspection report may already carry an assumed roof age you have not seen; it is reasonable to ask your agent what age the carrier has on file for your roof and to correct it with documentation if it is wrong.

Store the file somewhere that survives a flooded garage: a cloud folder, an email to yourself, anywhere off-site.

Why these roof clauses keep showing up on Arizona renewals

Roof settlement language is not an Arizona quirk. It has spread widely enough across the country that insurance regulators in other states have issued consumer guidance about it — the Massachusetts Division of Insurance, for example, published a consumer advisory specifically addressing roof-related insurance notices. That is a Massachusetts document, not an Arizona bulletin, and it does not govern your policy here. It is worth knowing about for one reason only: when a state regulator feels the need to explain roof notices to consumers, the underlying change is broad rather than local.

What Arizona homeowners are seeing fits that pattern. Hail and straight-line wind during monsoon season, intense UV exposure shortening the practical life of shingle and underlayment, and closer underwriting scrutiny of roof age have all pushed carriers toward material- and age-based roof terms. These changes usually arrive by endorsement in the renewal packet rather than by a phone call. Nobody warns you. The form number simply appears on the declarations page, and the schedule behind it governs the next storm.

How to find out which settlement basis you have before the next storm

Bring these questions to whoever services your policy, and ask for answers in writing from the policy form rather than from memory:

Is roof surfacing settled at replacement cost or actual cash value on my current policy?
Is a roof payment schedule attached, and what percentage applies to my roof’s material and age today?
What roof age does the carrier have on file for me, and what document is it based on?
Do I have a separate wind and hail deductible, and is it a percentage or a flat dollar amount?
Is a cosmetic damage exclusion attached to my roof surfacing?
If depreciation is recoverable, how long do I have to complete the work and what proof is required?

Be clear about what a comparison can and cannot do. You generally cannot rewrite a schedule in the middle of a policy term, and you cannot change terms after a storm has already hit. What you can do at renewal or on a new policy is choose among carriers whose roof forms differ, and in some cases qualify for replacement cost on roof surfacing by providing a recent roof certification or inspection. Those options narrow as a roof ages, which is why this is a conversation worth having early.

Placing Arizona home policies across several carriers means reading each carrier’s roof schedule and deductible wording for tile and shingle roofs in the Valley and in Tucson, then showing you the clause before a storm instead of after an adjuster’s report. Compare the settlement basis, deductibles, limits, and exclusions side by side — the premium alone tells you very little about what your roof is worth on a claim.

Does home insurance pay full price for a new roof in Arizona?