In Texas, a contractor who covers your deductible is committing an offense — and so are you.
What HB 2102 actually says, why “we'll waive your deductible” is a red flag rather than a discount, and how the law protects homeowners.
What the law says
House Bill 2102 passed the 86th Texas Legislature and took effect on September 1, 2019. It is codified at Texas Business & Commerce Code §27.02, and it is short enough that a homeowner can read the whole thing in a few minutes.
The operative provision makes it an offense for a person who sells goods or services paid for by insurance proceeds to pay, waive, absorb, rebate, credit, or otherwise decline to charge the deductible under the property insurance policy. The breadth of that list is deliberate. It is not enough to avoid the word “waive” and call the same arrangement a rebate, a credit, a “storm allowance,” or a line item that quietly nets to zero. The statute reaches the effect rather than the label.
The bill also carries a contract requirement: an agreement for repairs paid with insurance proceeds must contain written notice, in the contract itself, that the property owner is responsible for paying the deductible. Atrium's contracts carry that notice.
The part most homeowners do not realize is that the arrangement is not one-sided. The law addresses the homeowner's participation as well, so knowingly accepting a waived deductible is not simply receiving a favor from a contractor who is taking the risk. You are in it too.
HB 2102 was a clarification and strengthening rather than an invention. Texas law already restricted rebating deductibles before 2019; what the bill did was widen the described conduct, close the definitional gaps contractors had been working through, and put the written notice in the contract where the homeowner sees it.
Why “we'll cover your deductible” is never actually free
Set the statute aside for a moment and just follow the money. A contractor who absorbs a $4,000 deductible has to find $4,000 somewhere, because roofing margins do not contain a spare $4,000 per job. There are only three places it can come from.
The first is the carrier: the estimate gets inflated, line items appear that were never installed, or damage gets claimed on slopes that do not have it. That is insurance fraud on a considerably larger scale than the deductible itself, and it is your claim and your name attached to it.
The second is scope: the underlayment drops to the cheapest felt, the flashing gets sealed instead of rebuilt, the ridge vent gets installed without the intake to feed it, the decking repairs quietly do not happen. The third is material: a different shingle than the one specified, or off-brand accessories under a brand-name field.
You have no practical way to tell which one happened, and that is the actual problem. A roof is covered up layer by layer as it is installed. By the time the job looks finished, everything that determines how long it lasts is out of sight. The $4,000 came out of the part you cannot inspect.
Read the offer as a signal rather than as a standalone issue. A contractor willing to break a clear statute in the first conversation, in writing, to a stranger, is telling you how they will handle the parts of the job you will never see — and is also, in this market, the contractor least likely to still be reachable when a warranty claim comes up in year four.
How much is a roof deductible in Texas?
Most Texas homeowners policies write the wind and hail deductible as a percentage of the dwelling coverage limit rather than as a flat dollar amount. One to two percent is typical. On a $400,000 dwelling limit that is $4,000 to $8,000 out of pocket before the carrier pays anything toward the roof.
This surprises people, and the reason is understandable: their all-peril deductible is a flat $1,000 or $2,500, that is the number they remember, and they assume it applies to hail. It frequently does not. Pull your declarations page and look specifically for a separate wind and hail deductible line — it is the number that will actually govern a storm claim.
Knowing the figure before a storm rather than during one changes what you can plan for. See how a roof claim works for the sequence, and hail damage for whether you have a claim worth filing at all.
What a contractor can legally do
The line is clearer than most homeowners expect. Here is each side of it.
- Offer a genuine discount unrelated to the deductible — a promotional price, a scheduling incentive, or a negotiated scope.
- Help you find financing for the deductible, or connect you with a lender.
- Itemize and bill for legitimate supplemental work the carrier reviews and approves.
- Inspect the roof and document damage with dated photographs and measurements.
- Meet the adjuster on the roof and explain what the documentation shows.
- Pay, waive, rebate, credit, or absorb the deductible in any form, under any name.
- Inflate an estimate so the carrier effectively covers the deductible amount.
- Provide a false invoice or receipt showing the deductible was paid when it was not.
- Act as a public insurance adjuster on a property they are contracted to repair.
Almost everyone offering to waive a deductible is responding to a genuine problem: the homeowner cannot produce $6,000 at once. That problem is real, and it has a lawful answer. Financing the deductible, or arranging a payment plan, solves the same cash-flow constraint without asking anyone to participate in an offense. See financing options.
What to do if a contractor offers
- Do not sign anything — not a contract, not an assignment of benefits, not a contingency agreement.
- Ask them to put the offer in writing. In practice they will not, which tells you they know what it is.
- Get other quotes, and compare the written scopes rather than the bottom-line numbers.
- Report it to the Texas Department of Insurance if you want to. That is your call, not an obligation.
- Understand that accepting is participating. The offer is not a gift being handed to you.
Deductible FAQs
This page explains general Texas law for homeowners and is not legal advice. If you have a specific situation — a signed contract, a disputed claim, or a contractor who has already been paid — consult an attorney or contact the Texas Department of Insurance.
Related reading
How a Texas roof claim actually moves, from filing through recoverable depreciation.
ReadFunctional versus cosmetic damage, hail size, and when a claim is supportable.
ReadA documented condition report you keep — including when it says your roof is fine.
ReadWe document the roof, produce a written scope with named products, and tell you plainly what your policy is likely to cover.