How long you really have to sue your insurer
Somewhere in your policy there is a sentence saying no suit may be brought more than twelve months after the loss. Missouri does not enforce it. That does not mean nothing is urgent, and this page separates the deadline that is void from the ones that will end your claim quietly if you miss them.
Two sections do the work. RSMo 431.030 provides that a contract provision requiring suit to be brought within a shorter period than the statute allows is null and void. RSMo 516.110(1) sets ten years for an action on a written promise to pay money or property. An insurance policy is a written contract, so the period is ten years and the clause printed in your policy does not shorten it.
RSMo 431.030. RSMo 516.110(1).
Why the clause is in there at all
Because policy forms are written nationally. A twelve month suit limitation is enforceable in a good number of states, so it goes in the form, and then the form is sold in Missouri without anyone striking the line. The clause is not a trick aimed at you specifically. It is boilerplate that Missouri happens to void.
It still does damage, because homeowners read it and conclude that a claim which is going nowhere in month nine is a claim they have to abandon. It is not. That does not make delay free, which is the next section.
The deadlines that do bind you
These are contractual duties, not limitation periods, and breaching one gives an insurer a real defence regardless of how long you have to sue. Read your own policy for the exact wording, because the periods vary by form.
| The duty | Typical timing | What happens if you miss it |
|---|---|---|
| Prompt notice of loss | "Prompt" or "as soon as practicable" after the storm | The insurer can argue late notice prejudiced its ability to investigate, which is a common and effective defence on old hail |
| Protect the property | Immediately and continuing | Further damage that a reasonable tarp or repair would have prevented may not be covered |
| Signed, sworn proof of loss | Often sixty days after the insurer's request | This is the one that quietly kills claims. If a proof of loss is requested and not returned, the file can be closed on that ground alone |
| Cooperation and access | Throughout the claim | Refusing inspection, examination under oath or requested documents can void coverage for that loss |
| Recoverable depreciation | Often 180 days or a year after the actual cash value payment | The withheld depreciation stops being claimable and you have paid for the difference yourself |
| Appraisal demand | As the policy provides, usually while the claim is open | You lose the cheapest route to resolving a disagreement about amount rather than coverage |
Timings above are the common shapes of these provisions and are not your policy. Read yours.
Recoverable depreciation is the deadline people actually lose
On a replacement cost policy the first payment is usually the actual cash value: the cost to replace the roof, minus depreciation for its age and condition. The depreciation is withheld and becomes payable when the work is done and the invoice is submitted. The catch is that it is payable only for a defined window, and that window is measured from the date of the first payment, not from the date you eventually decide to do the work.
The pattern is completely ordinary. A cheque arrives in June, the family decides to think about it, the contractor they liked is booked out, autumn arrives, and by the following summer the withheld amount is no longer claimable. Nothing was denied. Nothing was fought. A deadline in a paragraph nobody reread simply passed.
If you take one thing from this page: find the sentence in your own policy that says when recoverable depreciation must be claimed by, write that date on the front of the file, and work backwards from it.
What to do in the first fortnight
- Report the loss and write down the claim number and the dateAsk, in the same call, for the policy to be emailed to you in full. Not the declarations page. The whole form with every endorsement.
- Photograph everything before anything is touchedWide shots of each elevation, then close work. Date stamped if your phone will do it. Include gutters, downspouts, screens, soft metal vents and anything else in the yard, because collateral damage on soft metals is often what evidences a hail event.
- Get a contractor's written scopePhotographs, slope by slope measurements and a priced scope of what the roof needs. That document is yours, it is useful whether or not there is a claim, and it is the thing you attach if the field estimate misses something.
- Read the loss settlement and deductible provisions before the adjuster arrives Fifteen minutes with the policy will tell you more about your likely outcome than any conversation on the driveway.
- Put every request in writing and keep the repliesA claim file that exists only in phone calls is a claim file that does not exist.
Not legal advice
General information about Missouri statutes, with the sections named so you can check them. Limitation questions turn on facts, and if a real dispute is developing you want a lawyer rather than a website.
Documentation, in your name, whether or not you hire anyone
Keys Roofing is a roofing, gutter and downspout company working in greater St. Louis, and that is the only part of Missouri it can send anyone to. If your house is outside that radius, use the guide and hire locally. Nothing here changes based on where you live.
What an inspection produces is a set of photographs, slope by slope measurements and a written scope of the work the roof needs. You keep that file. If there is a claim in your story, the claim stays in your name and in your hands: under RSMo 407.725 a Missouri roofing contractor shall not represent or negotiate an owner's insurance claim, and Keys does not. The contractor's job is to document the roof accurately and to be on the roof as the contractor when the adjuster inspects it.
Ask for a roof inspection
Goes to Keys Roofing. Greater St. Louis only. No obligation, and no part of this form asks anything about your policy limits.
Nothing you type here is sent to any insurer, and nobody from Keys will contact one on your behalf.