First steps after a storm (the first 30 days matter most)
Insurance claims get harder to win as time passes and the storm date gets fuzzy, so the early moves count:
- Note the storm date. Claims are tied to a specific event. If a hailstorm rolled through your area, write down the date — you’ll need it.
- Document everything before any repair. Date-stamped photos of every elevation, dents and cracks on siding and trim, damaged soft metals (gutters, downspouts, vents — these often confirm hail size), and any interior leaks. Don’t fix anything you haven’t documented.
- Get a professional damage assessment. An exterior contractor experienced in multifamily can identify hail bruising and cracking a quick walk-through misses — and can scope siding and roof together so nothing’s left off.
- Notify your carrier and read the policy’s deductible and notice terms. Master policies often carry percentage-based wind/hail deductibles, which can be large on a multi-building property. Know the number before you assume a claim makes sense.
- Scope siding with the roof, not after it. This is the single most common miss. Adjusters and boards focus on the roof; hail-damaged siding gets under-claimed or forgotten, and then it’s out of pocket later.
How siding insurance claims actually work for multifamily
Hail and wind are typically named, covered perils on an apartment or HOA master policy — but “covered” isn’t the same as “paid in full.” Three things shape what you actually recover:
- The deductible. Many KC-area master policies use a percentage-based wind/hail deductible (a percent of insured value), which can run into serious money on a multi-building association. Sometimes the documented damage doesn’t clear the deductible — which is worth knowing before you file.
- The documentation. Storm-related damage has to be shown to be storm-related. Good date-stamped photos and a professional assessment are what turn “wear and tear” (not covered) into “hail damage” (covered).
- The scope. What the adjuster writes up is what gets paid. If siding isn’t in the scope, it isn’t in the check. This is why scoping siding and roof together, with a contractor who knows what hail does to each material, matters so much.
Material matters too: hail behaves differently on vinyl and fiber cement (which crack and dent) than on steel or engineered wood (which resist impact). After a storm, that informs both the claim and the replacement decision — a re-side is a chance to move to a more impact-resistant material that lowers the next claim.
KC hail is a rising, recurring cost
This isn’t a freak-event market. Severe convective storms (hail, wind, tornado) drove $54 billion in U.S. insured losses in 2024 (Insurance Information Institute), Kansas storm-season claims alone reached roughly $612 million in 2024, and KC sits squarely in the corridor where these are getting more frequent and more expensive. For owners and boards, two things follow: deductibles and premiums are trending up, and impact-resistant cladding is increasingly both a maintenance and an insurability argument. Planning the re-side around the next storm, not just the last one, is the financially rational move.
Where insurance usually won’t help
- Stucco/EIFS moisture damage is frequently excluded or contested — the failure is often slow water intrusion, not a covered sudden event.
- Pre-existing wear, deferred maintenance, and old hardboard failure generally aren’t covered — those are replacement-budget items, not claims.
- Damage below the deductible is effectively uninsured, which on a percentage deductible can be a large number.
Knowing this up front keeps a board from building a funding plan around a claim that won’t come through. Where insurance does apply, claim it fully; where it doesn’t, plan the funding (see how associations pay for siding).