Texas Wind and Hail Deductibles

Percentage deductibles track the dwelling limit

A percentage deductible is a deductible written as a share of the dwelling limit instead of a flat dollar amount. Texas home policies commonly use one for wind and hail, and the TDI Home insurance guide describes that separate wind and hail deductible as a percentage of the dwelling limit.

The percentage is the policy mechanic, not the price of the policy. It decides how much of a storm claim the owner pays before the insurer pays anything.

A flat deductible stays the same until the policy is changed. A percentage deductible changes on its own, because it is calculated from a dwelling limit that moves at renewal.

How the figure is calculated

A percentage deductible is calculated by multiplying the dwelling limit, called Coverage A on a Texas home policy, by the percentage printed beside the wind and hail line on the declarations page.

The arithmetic below is a policy mechanic, not a quote, a premium or a claim settlement. On a stated dwelling limit of $300,000, a 2 percent wind and hail deductible is $6,000. A hail loss priced at $20,000 settles at $14,000 before any depreciation is applied.

Three things follow from the arithmetic:

• The deductible is tied to the dwelling limit, never to the size of the claim
• A loss priced below the calculated figure produces no payment at all
• Other structures, personal property and loss of use sit behind the same storm deductible on most forms

Why the figure moves without anyone changing the policy

A dwelling limit is meant to track the cost of rebuilding, so most Texas home policies raise Coverage A at renewal to keep pace with construction costs.

Every one of those increases raises the calculated deductible by the same percentage. The number on the declarations page reads the same year after year while the dollars behind it climb.

The renewal declarations page is the only place that shows the current figure. Checking it once at closing leaves an owner working from a deductible that stopped being accurate several renewals ago, and a hailstorm is a late moment to find that out. What Is a Deductible? covers how any deductible comes off a settlement.

How policies vary on the wording

Policy wording decides which storms the percentage applies to, and two forms with the same percentage can behave differently.

Variations that appear on Texas home policy forms:

• A wind and hail deductible, which applies to every wind and hail loss inland
• A named-storm or hurricane deductible, which applies only to a storm the National Weather Service has named
• A minimum dollar floor written beneath the percentage, so the deductible never falls below a set amount
• A separate flat deductible for all other perils, such as fire, theft or water discharge

Coastal policies split the peril further. Coastal and Windstorm Home Insurance in Texas covers windstorm written as its own contract under Texas Insurance Code ch. 2210.

Flat and percentage deductibles side by side

Two deductible structures sit on the same declarations page, and each one answers different damage.

	Flat deductible	Percentage deductible
How it is written	A set dollar amount	A share of the dwelling limit
What it usually answers	Fire, theft, liability-adjacent property loss, water discharge	Wind and hail, or a named storm
What happens at renewal	Unchanged until the policy is amended	Rises whenever the dwelling limit rises
Where it is printed	The deductible line on the declarations page	The wind and hail line on the declarations page
How a claim applies it	Subtracted once per claim	Subtracted once per claim, after the calculation

Both can appear on one policy, and two hailstorms in one spring mean the storm deductible twice.

What to review on your own declarations page

Read the dwelling limit and the wind and hail line together, because neither one means much alone.

Work through these in order:

• Coverage A, the dwelling limit, as it reads on the most recent renewal
• The wind and hail percentage, and whether a minimum dollar floor sits under it
• Whether the wording says wind and hail or says named storm
• The all other perils deductible, which is usually written flat
• Whether any endorsement limits roof settlement to actual cash value
• The calculated figure, worked out from this renewal’s dwelling limit rather than the original one

Aulona Insurance Group places the coverage this question is about: Texas Home Insurance.

Where Aulona Insurance Group is not the right fit

The deductible structure is set by the insurer and the form, not chosen by the agency, and Aulona Insurance Group publishes no premium and ranks no insurers.

Outside what the agency places:

• Preferred inland owner-occupied home coverage in the Dallas and Fort Worth suburbs, a weak market for the agency, which it says before an application is taken
• Any risk that has to go to surplus lines, which the agency cannot place in-house
• Life, health, Medicare and disability coverage, which the agency does not write at all

Aulona Insurance Group does not adjust claims or decide a settlement; the insurer’s adjuster applies the deductible printed on the policy.

Luka Cenaj, the agency’s licensed principal, reads Coverage A and the wind and hail line on a recorded call before Aulona Insurance Group takes a Texas home to an insurer.