Wear and Tear Exclusion
Also called: wear and tear, deterioration exclusion, age exclusion
Wear and Tear Exclusion is the standard policy provision removing cover for damage caused by ageing, deterioration, and ordinary use. It is the basis for most roof claim denials, because roofs wear out visibly and the resulting condition can resemble storm damage.
What it means
Every property policy excludes wear and tear, deterioration, and the gradual effects of ageing and ordinary use. The reasoning is that insurance covers sudden and accidental events, not the predictable decline of a building component toward the end of its service life.
Applied to roofs, this exclusion does an unusual amount of work, because roofs deteriorate visibly and their deterioration produces exactly the symptoms a homeowner associates with damage: granule loss, brittleness, curling, cracking, and eventually leaks.
Why it is the biggest source of denials
Because the two things being distinguished can look alike, and because most roofs that get claimed on are not new.
An asphalt roof approaching the end of its life has lost granules across its surface, has hardened, has unsealed tabs, and may be cracking. A roof struck by significant hail has lost granules at impact points, has fractured mats, and may have unsealed tabs from the accompanying wind.
An inspector arriving at an old roof after a storm has to decide how much of what they see arrived in the last week and how much arrived over fifteen years. That is a genuine technical judgement, not a formality, and reasonable people reach different conclusions about the same roof.
How the distinction is actually drawn
By pattern, distribution, and corroboration.
Storm damage is discrete and random. Individual impact points scattered across the slopes that were exposed, concentrated on the elevations facing the storm, with corresponding dents on the soft metals nearby.
Deterioration is diffuse and systematic. It affects the whole surface rather than points on it, is worst where sun exposure is greatest, follows water flow paths, and is not accompanied by any impact evidence anywhere, because no impact occurred.
The soft metals are decisive here more often than anything on the roof itself. Ageing does not dent a gutter. If the vents, gutters, and condenser show hail strikes, hail fell; if they are pristine, the case that the shingle condition is storm-related is much weaker.
Age is not a disqualification
Worth stating plainly, because homeowners are frequently told otherwise. A covered peril that damages an old roof has damaged an old roof, and the claim is legitimate.
What age changes is the arithmetic and the difficulty. Depreciation on an old roof is substantial, so the actual cash value payment is small, and under an actual cash value endorsement it can be very small. And the deterioration present alongside the storm damage gives any denial a readier explanation.
Common mistakes
Claiming a worn-out roof as storm damage is the one that does lasting harm, both to the individual claim and to the contractor’s standing with adjusters who see it repeatedly.
The second is conceding the whole roof because it is old. Age and damage coexist.
The third is arguing about the exclusion rather than about the evidence. The exclusion is not in doubt; what is in doubt is which cause produced what is on the roof.
On the call
A homeowner whose claim was denied for wear and tear is usually convinced the insurer is dodging, and they may well be right or wrong. Do not adjudicate it on the phone. Capture the roof's age if they know it, because that single fact shapes what any inspection is likely to conclude.
This is how our agents handle it on storm appointment calls and day-to-day roofing answering service intake.
Questions people ask about wear and tear exclusion
- Can an old roof still have a valid storm claim?
- Yes. Age is not itself a disqualification, and a twenty-year-old roof struck by damaging hail has been damaged by hail. What age does is make the argument harder, because deterioration is present and has to be distinguished from the storm damage.
- How is storm damage separated from wear?
- By pattern and corroboration. Impact damage is discrete, randomly distributed, and accompanied by dents on soft metals. Deterioration is diffuse, uniform, concentrated on the most exposed slopes, and unaccompanied by any impact evidence anywhere on the property.
- Does the exclusion mean the insurer never pays for old roofs?
- No, but it does mean the settlement reflects the roof's age through depreciation even when the claim is paid. An old roof damaged by a covered peril produces a smaller actual cash value payment, and under some endorsements a much smaller one.
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