Ben had been living in his Waco home for five years. It wasn’t fancy, but it was solid. A good roof. Decent yard. Great location in a safe neighborhood. And he liked that his payment was manageable, even with his insurance policy folded into escrow.
So when he opened a letter from his home insurance company saying, “Your coverage has been reduced,” he figured he’d give it a look. It seemed like a form letter. Probably nothing. But he thought it was best to look deeper. He decided to call the agent that sold him the homeowners policy originally.
But then, when he tried to call his old agent, no one picked up. He left a message. Sent an email. Nothing. That worried him.
Ben finally found a copy of the new homeowners policy and dug into the details. Two things stood out.
But there was no explanation, no guidance, and no conversation from either his agent or the insurance provider. Just a short, vague letter and a lot of confusion on his end.
Ben’s not the only one.
More and more Texans are getting these same “reduction” letters in the mail. But what’s really happening underneath the surface isn’t just about confusing wording. It’s about real money, real risk, and real surprises when an insurance claim happens.
We hear it every week. A homeowner gets a letter just like Ben, saying something like “coverage terms updated” or “insurance policy changes enclosed.” But when they open it, it’s just a page or two with barely enough detail to understand what changed.
These notices are vague for a reason. Most people won’t read past the first line, and fewer will dig into the fine print of their actual home insurance policy documents. But that’s where the important stuff is hiding.
For Ben, the change to a roof payment schedule from replacement cost coverage meant that if a hailstorm hit tomorrow, his insurance company wouldn’t cover the full replacement cost of a new roof. They would pay based on the age of the roof. If it was 10 years old, he might get 40% to 50% of the cost. That means Ben would have to cover the rest out of his own pocket.
He had no idea until we pointed it out.
Texas homeowners insurance companies are making these changes during renewals, and agents are not calling their customers to talk through what the changes mean. Homeowners are being left in the dark until it’s too late.
That silence leads straight to the next big problem.
Ben remembered his deductible used to be 1%. That meant if his house was worth $300,000, he would pay $3,000 out of pocket before his insurance company paid a dime on his insurance claim.
But now? That deductible for hail damage had been moved to 3%. Which meant he’d owe $9,000 out of pocket for the same damage. And again, no one called to tell him.
This change isn’t unusual anymore. We’re seeing more companies move deductibles from 1% to 2% or 3% as a way to offset rising insurance premiums. That may help insurance companies balance their books, but it catches a lot of homeowners off guard when a storm rolls through Waco.
If Ben's roof takes a beating and he had not looked closely at the deductible change, he could be stuck paying thousands more than expected before the claim settlement pays him.
That was a wake-up call for Ben. And then he thought about the part that made his stomach turn.
The change from replacement cost coverage to roof payment schedule was the real kicker.
Ben had originally bought replacement cost so that if his roof got destroyed in a storm, insurance would pay to put on a new one. But the change in his homeowners insurance coverage to roof payment schedule, that insurance claim payment shrinks as the roof gets older. We used to call this actual cash value.
In some policies now, companies are moving roofs to this kind of coverage after just five years. Five. That’s not even halfway through a roof’s life.
So let’s say Ben’s roof would cost $18,000 to replace. But his roof is 10 years old. If the schedule only pays 50 percent, that means the insurance company would cut a check for $9,000 after his deductible. And if that hail deductible is now 3%, or $9,000 on a $300,000 home, the entire claim settlement payout is wiped out.
That leaves Ben covering the entire cost of the roof on his own, even though he’s been paying insurance premiums every year since he bought his house.
This isn’t theory. It’s happening across Texas. And it’s happening faster than most homeowners realize.
Ben was frustrated. But he wasn’t helpless.
He called our team at Insurance For Texans, and we walked him through his options for home insurance in Waco. We pointed out every line that had changed, helped him understand what the insurance company had done, and showed him what better homeowners insurance options were available.
That’s where True Texas Home Insurance comes in.
This isn’t just a policy with a Texas flag stamped on the brochure. It’s a total cost of risk coverage program built specifically to work in our state. The storms. The hail. The roof claims. The heat. The rising cost of insurance premiums. It’s written with those risks in mind.
Ben was relieved to see there were still good auto and homeowners insurance options available. Policies that offer true replacement cost on roofs. Deductibles that aren’t sky-high. And agents who actually pick up the phone.
If you got a letter from your insurance company saying your “coverage has been reduced,” don’t ignore it. That’s not junk mail. It could mean big changes to what gets paid if you have an insurance claim.
Whether it’s a bigger deductible, a switch to a roof payment schedule, or another hidden change, it’s your home and your money on the line.
There’s a better way to do this. And it starts with working with someone who’s actually in your corner.
At Insurance For Texans, we help you make sense of the fine print and match you with coverage that does what it’s supposed to do. True Texas Home Insurance is only available here, and it’s built to protect real homes with real people and real roofs across our state.
Click the button below to find out what your current policy really covers before the next storm finds out first.