A hailstorm does not wait for you to read your policy. Stones hit, the sky clears, and you are left staring at a roof that may look fine from the driveway. In Michigan, the next 24 to 48 hours decide whether you have a clean claim file or a scramble of missing photos, a late call to the carrier, and an adjuster who arrives after the evidence has been swept off the driveway.
This guide walks Oakland County homeowners through documenting damage, opening the claim, hosting the adjuster, understanding ACV versus RCV, and working with a licensed contractor so the file matches the roof that is actually up there. If hail or wind already opened the system, start with Storm Damage Roof Repair. If you need someone to work the estimate, the supplements, and the adjuster meeting, use Insurance Claim Roof Assistance.
Document the roof before you clean anything up
The most useful claim photos are the ones you take before anyone rakes granules off the sidewalk. Hail leaves a short-lived trail: loose asphalt grit in the gutters, bruised tabs that still look wet, and bright dents on soft metal that oxidize and dull within days.
Photograph from the ground first. Capture each elevation of the house, the mailbox, the downspouts, window screens, and any vehicles or outdoor furniture that took the same storm. Then, if it is safe, have a contractor get on the roof. Do not climb a wet Oakland County roof yourself. A fall is not a claim strategy.
What belongs in the file:
- Wide shots of every slope, including the back and the garage
- Close-ups of bruised shingles, missing granules, and cracked tabs
- Soft-metal hits on vents, ridge vents, and gutter faces
- Granule piles in the troughs and at downspout outlets
- Interior stains, if any, with a date on the photo
- The street, so the date and neighborhood context are obvious
Keep broken shingle pieces and a bag of granules. They are evidence, not trash. Write the storm date on a note in the same folder as the photos. Michigan carriers will ask when the event happened. “Sometime last week” is how a claim gets delayed.
Call your insurer within 24 to 48 hours
Most homeowners policies require prompt notice. Prompt in practice means you call within a day or two of discovering the damage, not after you have shopped three contractors and waited to see if the next rain leaks.
When you call, you are opening a claim, not arguing the settlement. Have the policy number, the date of the storm, and a short description: hail, visible granule loss, dented gutters, possible bruising on the south slope. Ask for the claim number and write it down. Ask whether they will send a staff adjuster or an independent, and when that visit is likely.
You do not need a final contractor bid before you report the loss. You do need enough documentation that the carrier cannot later say you waited until a second storm mixed the dates. If more weather is on the way, say so. If you needed emergency tarping, say that too. Mitigation is a duty, not an admission that you already repaired the roof.
Do not give a recorded statement about “the roof was already old” unless you are answering a precise question with a precise fact. Age is on the declarations and in the inspection. Casual talk becomes a depreciation argument.
What happens at the adjuster visit
The adjuster is there to confirm a covered peril, measure the damage, and write an estimate. They are not there to sell you a roof, and they are not required to find every bruise you cannot see from the lawn.
A productive visit has a licensed contractor on the roof with the adjuster. 800 New Look meets adjusters across Oakland County for that reason. Functional hail damage on architectural shingles is often a bruise: the mat is fractured under a granule-loss spot that looks like a dark thumbprint. Those marks do not photograph well from the street. They show when someone is standing on the slope, in the right light, pointing at a test square.
Expect the adjuster to:
- Confirm the date and the type of storm
- Walk slopes they consider safe
- Look at vents, flashings, and gutters
- Ask about prior repairs and the age of the roof
- Write a first estimate in the carrier’s software
The first estimate is a first estimate. It is common for it to miss ice-and-water shield, starter, ridge, or a slope they did not walk. That is why you want a line-item contractor estimate in the same language, and why you should not sign a full release the same afternoon.
If the adjuster only looks from a ladder at the eaves, ask for a full roof inspection or a reinspection. Hail is not evenly distributed. The windward slopes take the beating. The backyard slope can look untouched until you are on it.
ACV vs RCV: why the first check is not the whole story
Michigan homeowners often cash a check and assume that number is the roof. It usually is not.
Actual Cash Value (ACV) is replacement cost minus depreciation minus your deductible. On a fifteen-year-old roof, depreciation can erase a large share of the payment. The gap is yours.
Replacement Cost Value (RCV) still starts with an ACV-style first check. After you replace the roof and submit the invoice, the carrier should release recoverable depreciation. That second check is how RCV actually funds a new roof. If you never replace, or you miss the deadline, you keep the depreciated amount.
Read the declarations page and any roof endorsement. Some policies are RCV on the house and ACV on the roof after a certain age. 800 New Look will not rewrite your policy. We will tell you which settlement method the paperwork appears to use and what invoice the carrier will need if you are on RCV.
Do not spend the first check on unrelated bills if you intend to replace. On RCV, that money is how the project starts.
Work with a licensed contractor who will stay on the file
A hail claim is not a weekend patch and a handshake. You want a Michigan-licensed contractor who will:
- Document every slope, not just the street face
- Write a line-item estimate the carrier’s software can compare
- Meet the adjuster on site
- Request supplements when the first estimate is short
- Track recoverable depreciation
- Separate storm restoration from optional upgrades
Hiring the cheapest cash number without a scope gives the carrier a cheap number to match. Signing with a storm-chasing crew that vanishes after the first check leaves you with a hole in the file and, sometimes, a hole in the roof.
800 New Look is based in Farmington Hills and works hail and wind claims across Oakland County. We do not promise a settlement your policy cannot pay. We do keep the scope honest so the carrier is pricing the roof that is there, including flashings, vents, and drip edge, not a single lump sum that hides missing layers.
If the roof is a repairable cluster of hits rather than a total loss, that still belongs in the same documented process. Repair versus replace is a function of how widespread the bruising is, the age of the system, and whether matching shingles still exist. That decision should be written, photographed, and walked with the adjuster, not guessed from the driveway.
A realistic 30 to 60 day timeline
Hail claims in Southeast Michigan rarely finish in a week. A typical sequence looks like this:
Day 0–2. Storm hits. You photograph what you can, call the carrier, and schedule a contractor inspection. If the deck is open, tarp first.
Day 3–10. Contractor inspection and written estimate. Claim number is active. Adjuster appointment is set.
Day 7–21. Adjuster visit. First estimate arrives. You and the contractor compare it to the actual roof.
Day 14–35. Supplements, reinspection if needed, and agreement on repair versus replacement.
Day 21–60. Materials, production schedule, tear-off and install, invoice to the carrier, recoverable depreciation if you have RCV.
Widespread events stretch every one of those windows. After a county-wide hail day, adjusters are booked and crews are stacked. Starting the file in the first 48 hours is how you stay at the front of that line instead of the back.
Delays you can avoid: throwing away the first check, missing the adjuster, waiting for “one more storm” to see if it leaks, and hiring someone who will not climb with the adjuster.
Oakland County hailstorm, April 2023: Farmington Hills and Novi
In April 2023, an Oakland County hailstorm dropped golf-ball-sized stones on Farmington Hills and Novi. By morning, streets of two-story colonials looked dusty rather than destroyed. Homeowners found the real story in the gutters and on the cars. Granules had washed into every downspout outlet. Soft aluminum gutters along the west elevations were lined with round dents the size of the hail. Window screens were punched. From the ground, the roofs still read as “a little worn.”
One Farmington Hills homeowner called 800 New Look that morning instead of rinsing the grit into the storm sewer. We photographed the granule piles, the gutter faces, and then the south and west slopes. The shingles showed consistent bruising in test squares the street view never would have shown. The carrier was called the same day. The adjuster who arrived the following week stood on those slopes with us. The claim was not an argument about whether hail had occurred. Golf-ball hail in Farmington Hills and Novi left the same signature: dents, grit, and bruises from one date.
Neighbors who waited two weeks to “see if anything leaked” had cleaner driveways and a harder conversation. The granules were gone. The gutter dents had started to chalk. The roof still had the bruises, but the supporting evidence was thinner. Same April 2023 cell. Same Oakland County storm. Different files.
If you are on a Farmington Hills or Novi street the morning after hail and you see grit in the gutter, treat that as the start of the claim, not as a cleanup chore.
Mistakes that shrink or stall a Michigan hail claim
Waiting for a leak. Functional hail damage is often a fracture in the mat, not an active drip. By the time water shows in a ceiling, you have a roof claim and an interior claim.
Using a drone video as the entire file. Aerials help. They do not replace a hands-on test square.
Repairing before the inspection. Replacing three tabs “so it looks better” erases the pattern the adjuster needs to see.
Signing a release that closes supplements. Read the document. Some forms end the conversation before depreciation and missed line items are settled.
Assuming the roof is “too old” to claim. Age affects depreciation and some endorsements. It does not automatically mean hail did not damage the roof.
Going on the roof in the rain to take your own close-ups. Hire a contractor.
What 800 New Look does on a hail claim
We inspect, document, and stay through the adjuster visit. If the loss is storm-driven, Storm Damage Roof Repair is the repair path. If you want the claim worked as a file, not just a roof walk, Insurance Claim Roof Assistance is how we meet the adjuster, write the estimate, and follow supplements until the scope matches the house.
We will tell you when a repair is honest and when a replacement is the only way to restore a weather-tight system. We will not invent damage. We will not let obvious functional hits stay off the estimate because nobody walked the back slope.
Get a free inspection
If hail hit your Oakland County roof, do not guess from the driveway. A documented inspection gives you photos, a scope, and a plan for the carrier conversation. Call 800 New Look and we will tell you what is damaged, what the adjuster will likely ask, and what the 30 to 60 day path looks like on your house.
