Homeowners knowingly or unknowingly providing false roof age information may initially benefit from lower insurance premiums but ultimately have a roof-related claim denied due to the deception. Insurers need a more accurate way to determine roof age.(Credit: Vladimir Polikarpov/Adobe Stock) Homeowners knowingly or unknowingly providing false roof age information may initially benefit from lower insurance premiums but ultimately have a roof-related claim denied due to the deception. Insurers need a more accurate way to determine roof age.(Credit: Vladimir Polikarpov/Adobe Stock)

More than half of insurance claims involve roof damage, according to Lending Tree, and these losses are often caused by wind, hail and weather-related water damage. The Insurance Information Institute (Triple-I) reports that 39.4% of homeowners insurance losses in 2021 involved wind and hail, while 23.5% were due to water damage and freezing. It's fair to say roof repairs cost property and casualty insurers a pretty penny annually, but companies such as Nearmap and ZestyAI are working to mitigate these losses with more accurate data on roof age for carriers.

"The predominant way that carriers get that [roof age] information is a homeowner-supplied roof age," said Kumar Dhuvur, co-founder and head of product at ZestyAI, makers of Digital Roof™. "We polled a random sample of homeowners across the country, and we found that more than two-thirds of them did not know what the age of their roof was, especially if they were not the owner when the roof was replaced."

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Ashley Hattle-Cleminshaw

Ashley Hattle-Cleminshaw serves as ALM's PropertyCasualty360 Senior Editor. She brings 10 years of experience in journalism and communications to the editorial team. Reach her by sending an e-mail to [email protected].

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