What Does the New Texas Appraisal Law Mean for Roofing Contractors in 2026?

Short answer: for covered personal residential policies issued, delivered, or renewed in Texas on or after January 1, 2026, Texas Insurance Code Chapter 1813 requires the policy to carry an appraisal provision that complies with the new law. Appraisal is no longer a carrier-by-carrier feature that may or may not be usable. For roofing contractors, that changes one thing above all others: the scope you write is far more likely to be read by an independent appraiser or umpire, so it has to be defensible on its face.

What actually changed

Before 2026, appraisal in Texas depended almost entirely on the wording buried in each carrier's policy. Some policies had a clean appraisal clause. Some had one with notice conditions or timing language that made it hard to use. Policyholders frequently could not tell whether appraisal was available at all, when they were allowed to invoke it, or what rules applied once they did.

Chapter 1813 pushes Texas toward a standard framework. The principle is simple: when the fight is over the amount of loss, there should be a formal process to settle that number. The Texas Department of Insurance has also proposed rules to implement the chapter, published as 28 TAC §§5.9800–5.9806, covering items like a written appraisal demand process, carrier notice of appraisal rights when a coverage acceptance or rejection letter goes out, deadlines for naming appraisers, and independence and competency standards for appraisers and umpires. Those proposed rules would give residential policyholders roughly one year from the carrier's coverage acceptance or rejection notice to demand appraisal, with the parties naming appraisers within about 20 days.

Proposed rules are not final rules. TDI's written comment period on the proposal closed in June 2026 and the department has not adopted a final version as of this writing. Before you tell a homeowner anything about a deadline, verify the current rule text and read the appraisal wording in that specific policy.

Amount of loss versus coverage: the line that decides your strategy

This is the distinction most crews get wrong, and getting it wrong wastes months.

Appraisal is built to answer how much the covered damage is worth. That includes scope, quantities, material and labor pricing, whether flashings, vents, accessories, and matching items belong in the estimate, and how actual cash value, replacement cost value, and depreciation are calculated.

Appraisal usually does not answer whether the damage is covered. If the adjuster's position is that the granule loss is age and foot traffic rather than hail, or that an exclusion applies, or that notice was late, you are in a coverage dispute. Pushing a coverage fight into appraisal tends to produce delay and an award that gets contested afterward. When a customer's file lands on the wrong side of that line, our guide on what contractors can do about a denied roof claim covers the routes that actually exist.

Read the carrier's letter carefully. A letter that accepts the loss and attaches a low estimate is an amount-of-loss dispute. A letter that denies causation is not.

What a defensible scope file looks like

An appraiser who has never been to the property is going to decide the number. Everything they know about your scope comes from the file you built. A higher estimate with no support behind it is the weakest thing you can hand them.

Build the file so a stranger can follow it:

• Measurements that hold up. Squares, pitch, ridge, hip, valley, rake, eave, and penetration counts, with the report attached. Vague or rounded measurements invite the umpire to default to the carrier's numbers.
• Photographs tied to location. Slope and elevation labeled, test squares documented, close-ups paired with wide shots that establish where the close-up came from.
• Line-item estimating notes. For every disputed line, one sentence explaining why it belongs: manufacturer installation requirement, code requirement, access condition, or a component that cannot be reused once disturbed.
• A side-by-side comparison. Your scope against the carrier scope, with the differences called out as omissions, quantity differences, quality differences, or pricing differences. Do not make the appraiser build this themselves.
• Weather and date support. Storm date documentation and anything that ties the damage to the reported date of loss.

This is the same discipline that makes a supplement land, and most appraisal files start life as a refused supplement. Our guide on writing a supplement that actually gets approved covers the format side in detail, and the habits transfer directly.

Accurate measurements are the foundation of all of it, and they are the part most often challenged. Getting square counts, pitch, and linear footage right the first time, in a report you can attach, is exactly the problem RoofMetric was built to solve, and our breakdown of what to look for in roof measurement software explains which accuracy claims actually matter when someone is checking your work.

What to tell the homeowner, and what not to

You will be the first professional to spot the scope gap, so you will be the one asked what happens next. Be useful and be careful.

Useful: explain that appraisal is a process for resolving a disagreement about the amount of loss, that it has deadlines, that it usually has costs, and that they should keep every letter the carrier sends.

Careful: do not promise a number. Do not tell a homeowner that appraisal guarantees your estimate gets paid. It does not. The result depends on the policy, the evidence, the appraisers, the umpire if one is needed, and the applicable law. Contractors who oversell appraisal create angry customers and reputational damage when an award lands below the contract price.

Also be clear about your own lane. You are not the homeowner's adjuster and you are not their lawyer. When the dispute involves policy interpretation, deadlines, or money that matters, point them toward a qualified attorney, public adjuster, or appraisal professional.

A concrete example

A homeowner reports hail. The carrier accepts coverage and issues an estimate for $18,000. Your estimate for a complete, code-compliant scope is $42,000.

Nobody disputes that hail damaged the roof. The disagreement is scope and pricing. That is squarely an amount-of-loss dispute, and it is the kind of file appraisal was designed for. Your job is not to argue louder. It is to make the $24,000 gap legible: which line items the carrier omitted, which quantities are short, which code items apply, and why depreciation was calculated the way it was.

Files that win on that gap are the ones where every disputed line has a reason attached to it.

How this changes your operation

Three practical shifts are worth making now.

First, standardize your documentation package so every storm file is built the same way, whether or not it ever goes to appraisal. You cannot go back and re-photograph a roof after it is replaced.

Second, train your sales team on the coverage-versus-amount distinction so they stop promising appraisal on denial files.

Third, track policy dates. Whether a policy was issued or renewed before or after January 1, 2026 changes which appraisal framework applies, and that is a question worth asking during the first inspection rather than four months in.

The bottom line

Chapter 1813 makes appraisal a more dependable path for resolving amount-of-loss disputes on covered Texas personal residential policies. It does not make weak estimates strong. The contractors who benefit are the ones whose measurements, photographs, and estimating notes can survive review by someone who was never on the roof.

This article is general information for construction professionals and is not legal advice. Appraisal rights, deadlines, and procedures depend on the specific policy, the loss facts, the policy date, and the final Texas Department of Insurance rules. Homeowners with an active claim should consult a qualified Texas insurance professional or attorney.

Frequently asked questions

Does the new Texas appraisal law apply to every claim?

No. Chapter 1813 applies to covered personal residential property and personal automobile policies issued, delivered, or renewed in Texas on or after January 1, 2026. Claims on policies written before that date are governed by the appraisal language already in the policy.

Can a roofing contractor demand appraisal for a homeowner?

No. Appraisal belongs to the parties to the insurance contract, meaning the policyholder and the carrier. You can document the scope difference and explain the process, but the homeowner invokes it.

Does appraisal decide whether hail damage is covered?

Generally no. Appraisal decides the amount of loss. Causation and exclusion arguments are coverage disputes.

What documentation matters most in a Texas roof appraisal?

Accurate measurements, dated and located photographs, a line-item estimate with quantities, manufacturer and code support for disputed items, and a written comparison of your scope against the carrier's.