Nine roof claim myths, checked
This is the whole site in one page. Every statement below is something Missouri homeowners are told routinely, usually by somebody with a truck. Each gets a verdict and each verdict carries the section number or the case that produced it. Seven are false in Missouri, one depends entirely on your own policy, and one is true and almost nobody knows about it.
- Method
- A statement is false only if a statute, a regulation or a reported decision says so, and that source is printed with it.
- Where they come from
- Contractor marketing, adjuster shorthand repeated secondhand, and generative summaries that quote failed bills as law
- Scope
- Missouri. Several of these are genuinely true in other states, which is exactly how they travel.
- Standing caveat
- None of this is legal advice, and your own policy wording governs.
Missouri has no matching statute and no matching regulation for residential roofs. The citation that circulates governs automobile body parts, and the "uniform appearance" wording usually pinned on Missouri is Iowa's. Missouri has case law only, and it turns on your policy's own repair language.
Alessi v. Mid-Century Ins. Co., 464 S.W.3d 529 (Mo. App. E.D. 2015). No Missouri statute or regulation on residential roof matching exists.
RSMo 431.030 makes a contractual clause shortening the time to bring suit null and void. The period on a written contract, which is what a policy is, is ten years under RSMo 516.110(1). The notice and proof of loss deadlines inside your policy are a different question and they do bind you.
RSMo 431.030, RSMo 516.110(1).
There is no state roofing license in Missouri and so no state number to check. SB 1022 in 2016, SB 153 in 2019 and SB 326 in 2021 all failed and none became law. Licensing is municipal: Ballwin and Kirkwood run their own, many municipalities run none.
Missouri Revisor of Statutes. Failed bills SB 1022 (2016), SB 153 (2019), SB 326 (2021).
A Missouri contractor shall not represent or negotiate, or offer or advertise to represent or negotiate, on an owner's insurance claim connected with roof repair or replacement. That is RSMo 407.725(6), and 407.725(7) makes a breach an unfair practice under the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act. A contractor can document and price the roof. It cannot argue the claim.
RSMo 407.725(6) and RSMo 407.725(7).
The same section bars a roofing contractor from advertising or promising to pay, waive, absorb or rebate all or part of an insurance deductible. Beyond the statute, an inflated invoice written to make the deductible disappear is a document you have signed your name under.
RSMo 407.725, deductible provision.
A field adjuster writes what they measured and what they were shown, working from a software price list. If the scope missed decking, flashing, drip edge, ridge vent or a code requirement, the ordinary route is a supplement supported by photographs and a written scope, sent by you. Most policies also carry an appraisal clause for a genuine dispute about amount.
Policy dependent. Check your own policy's appraisal and loss settlement provisions.
Missouri licenses public adjusters and requires them to be bonded, but it sets no cap on what they may charge. The fee is whatever the contract you sign says it is. Missouri does bar a public adjuster from performing the repair work on the same claim, which is the more useful protection.
RSMo chapter 325, public adjusters. Repair bar at RSMo 325.055.
Functional damage on an asphalt shingle is usually granule loss with a bruised, soft mat underneath, and it very often does not look like a hole. Whether that is covered depends on your policy: many policies now carry a cosmetic damage exclusion or a separate wind and hail deductible, and some are written on an actual cash value basis for the roof only. The shingle is evidence. The policy is the rule.
Policy dependent. Look for cosmetic damage exclusions and roof surfacing endorsements.
This one is real and badly under-used. RSMo 135.445 creates a Missouri credit equal to a homestead insurance deductible incurred during the 2025 calendar year, capped at $5,000, and the credit is transferable. No new credits are issued after 15 October 2026, so it is a closing window rather than a standing programme.
RSMo 135.445. Talk to a tax professional about your own return before relying on it.
Why any of this is worth writing down
Because the alternative is what already fills this market. A homeowner who understands that Missouri has no matching rule, that the one year clause is void, and that no contractor may argue their claim is a homeowner who is much harder to sell something bad to. That is a worse outcome for the storm chasers and a better one for everybody else. Every verdict above names the section or the case it rests on, so none of it has to be taken on trust.
Where these come from
Three sources, roughly in order of volume. The first is contractor marketing written by somebody who copied another state's page and swapped the state name, which is exactly how Iowa's appearance wording ended up attached to Missouri. The second is adjuster shorthand repeated thirdhand until it hardens into a rule.
The third is newer and is growing fast: generative summaries that read a failed bill, see the bill text describing a licensing scheme, and report the scheme as current law. SB 326 gets quoted this way constantly. It failed. Nothing in it is in force.
The fix is the same in all three cases. Ask what section number it is, then go and read the section. Every claim on this site tells you where to look.
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.