On a replacement cost claim, the depreciation the carrier held back usually comes in a second check once the roof is done and the carrier has proof. In Texas it can also hold that check until it sees proof the homeowner paid the deductible, like a canceled check or a card statement. Take the deductible in a form that leaves that record, and send the carrier your final invoice and proof of completion the day you finish.
For the final payment, Texas makes the homeowner hold back 10 percent until 30 days after you finish, and its prompt-pay law appears to give them 35 days from your written payment request, with 1.5 percent a month after that. If they still don’t pay, your lien affidavit is due by the 15th day of the third month after the month you finished, so June 15 for a roof finished in March. On a homestead, though, the Texas Constitution may rule out a lien on a contract signed at the kitchen table.
Zentora is a marketing company, and we haven’t measured how fast carriers or homeowners pay. Selling more jobs won’t fix any of this, and I sell marketing. I’m also not a lawyer, and Texas, where I’m based, is the only state whose law I read, so check your own state’s or province’s rules.
The older the roof, the more of the job waits for the second check
The Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) says the first check on a replacement cost claim is the repair estimate minus depreciation. In its example, a $10,000 roof with a $4,000 deductible pays $6,000 under replacement cost coverage, while actual cash value pays $4,500 on a 5-year-old roof, $3,000 on a 10-year-old one and nothing on a 20-year-old one. By my math, that leaves a quarter of the $6,000 for the second check on the 5-year-old roof, half on the 10-year-old and all of it on the 20-year-old, where you’d build the whole job before any insurance money came in.
I found no published figures on how long carriers take to pay it. A DFW roofing client of ours says its jobs only turn a profit once the depreciation is in, and it gets paid a week to three months after a sale closes. “It feels like I’m having to finance jobs with my own interest,” an owner wrote under a YouTube video in 2022 about unpaid depreciation invoices.
A policy can also set a deadline for claiming the depreciation. A contractor on r/Roofing wrote in 2024 of a homeowner whose insurer’s deadline for it was coming up in April, and I found no Texas law that sets one for every policy.
A Texas carrier can hold the depreciation until the deductible is proven paid
Texas makes the homeowner pay the deductible, and for a roofer, waiving, absorbing or rebating it, or helping a homeowner avoid it, is a Class B misdemeanor. A carrier with replacement cost coverage may withhold the depreciation until it has reasonable proof the deductible was paid, such as a canceled check, a money order receipt, a credit card statement, or a signed installment or financing contract.
Once a carrier accepts a claim, Texas gives it 5 business days to pay, or 5 business days after the policyholder does something the payment depends on. I read a finished roof with proof as that kind of condition, a reading a lawyer should check. A late carrier owes the homeowner 18 percent a year in interest plus attorney’s fees (less in some lawsuits).
The claim and that interest belong to the homeowner. Texas bars a contractor from acting as a public adjuster on any property where it does or may do the work, even with a license or a power of attorney, and TDI lists offering to negotiate a settlement as improper.
A mortgage company on the check adds its own wait
With a home loan, TDI says the insurer usually sends the payment to the mortgage company, which must contact the homeowner within 10 days of getting the check and send it within 10 days once its requirements are met. TDI cites no law for those rules, and I couldn’t find one. For the DFW client above, the lender’s endorsement makes the first check take about one to two weeks, and work starts once the money clears.
“Between the insurance company, mortgage company, homeowner signing it over, we have been waiting on checks for over 2 months on completed jobs!” someone at a Minnesota insurance roofer’s office wrote on r/Contractor in 2022.
On a Fannie Mae loan that’s current or under 31 days behind, the servicer may release a claim of $40,000 or less in one payment, with no receipts. FHA, VA, Freddie Mac and portfolio lenders set their own rules, so ask who holds the mortgage when you sign.
Fannie Mae servicers also have to get any lien releases that apply, so the lender may ask you for one before the final money moves. A conditional release in Texas takes effect only once there’s evidence you were paid, which makes it the one to sign while the check is still moving.
A Texas homeowner keeps the last 10 percent until 30 days after you finish
The Property Code makes the homeowner hold back 10 percent of the contract price during the work and for 30 days after, which puts the last $1,000 of a $10,000 roof about a month after you finish.
Texas’s prompt-pay law gives an owner 35 days to pay after a written payment request, or up to 60 if a single-family house contract says so. Late money earns 1.5 percent a month, and a court can award attorney’s fees. The law defines an owner broadly enough to appear to cover homeowners, though I found no case applying it to one and would ask an attorney before quoting it to a customer.
In a good-faith dispute over a house, workmanship included, the owner can hold back no more than 110 percent of the amount in dispute, which by my arithmetic lets them keep back $550 over a $500 punch-list dispute. Put every payment request in writing, since the 35 days run from it. When the dispute is over the work itself, Roofing Callbacks and Customer Disputes: Contracts, Warranties and the Review After picks up from there.
A Texas lien affidavit is due by the 15th day of the third month after the job
“After 5 years in the industry, I’ve got my first situation where a homeowner has not completed payment and are now dodging me,” a contractor wrote on r/RoofingSales in 2025, worried about lawyer fees. One reply said a pre-lien notice usually scares most reasonable people into paying.
A Texas roofer who contracts directly with the homeowner files the lien affidavit with the county clerk by the 15th day of the third month after the month the work ended. For a roof finished any day in March, that’s June 15, or the next business day if June 15 falls on a weekend or holiday, and a copy goes to the homeowner within 5 days, in person or by a traceable method such as certified mail.
You then have a year from the last day you could have filed to sue to foreclose, or up to two years after you filed if the homeowner signs a written extension in time and it gets recorded. On a residential job, the court doesn’t have to make the homeowner pay your costs and attorney’s fees. The debt itself, at $20,000 or less, can go to justice court, Texas’s small claims court, which can’t enforce a lien. A Georgia owner on r/Contractor who did file one didn’t expect to collect, since the homeowner was renting the house out and no sale was going to close.
A kitchen-table contract may not support a lien on a Texas homestead
For a lien on a homestead, the Property Code requires a written contract signed before any work or material is supplied, by both spouses if the owner is married, and filed with the county clerk. The affidavit has to carry “NOTICE: THIS IS NOT A LIEN. THIS IS ONLY AN AFFIDAVIT CLAIMING A LIEN.” at the top in 10-point bold.
For repairs to an existing homestead, the Texas Constitution adds four conditions: both spouses’ written consent, no signing until the 5th day after any credit application for the work, a 3-day right to cancel, and signing only at the office of a third-party lender, an attorney or a title company. A written health-and-safety acknowledgment from the homeowner removes the wait and the 3 days, though the office rule still applies.
As I read it, a re-roof contract signed at the kitchen table may not support a homestead lien at all. It’s the conclusion here I’d most want a construction attorney to check.
Texas also enforces a lien waiver written into a single-family house contract before work starts, against anyone who supplies labor. Check any contract form a homeowner hands you for one.
Floating one job with another job’s check can be a crime in Texas
In Texas, the money paid for a job is held in trust for that job’s subs and suppliers, with you as trustee. Using it for anything else while they’re owed current or past-due bills is misapplication, a Class A misdemeanor at $500 or more and a third-degree felony with intent to defraud. Keeping it all in one account doesn’t end the trust, and paying that job’s own expenses is a defense. An unpaid sub or supplier on a house can also send your customer a notice of claim and go on to lien the house.
For carrying a job through the wait, the one option I found in a primary source is the U.S. Small Business Administration’s CAPLines, which include a Contract CAPLine for a specific contract’s costs, overhead included, with terms up to 10 years and a rate you negotiate with the lender. I found no primary source on what invoice factoring costs a roofer. An owner on r/RoofingSales found that a lender paying one lump sum after the customer approved the finished work made longer jobs hard to fund, and Roof Financing for Contractors: Dealer Fees, Lenders and When It Helps Close covers the lenders.
Fix the paperwork before the tear-off and on the day you finish
Here’s where these Texas rules land on a job.
- At signing: the 12-point bold deductible notice from section 27.02 of the Business and Commerce Code on insurance jobs of $1,000 or more, both spouses’ signatures if the owner is married, any deadline the policy sets for claiming depreciation and the mortgage company’s name. Roofing Contracts and 1099 Rules: What a New Owner Needs in Writing covers the rest.
- On storm work away from home: after a declared disaster, a contractor without a physical business address for a year in that county or a neighboring one can’t require payment before starting, or partial payments beyond the work and materials delivered, and the contract has to say so in bold.
- The day you finish: send the carrier the final invoice with proof of completion and proof the homeowner paid the deductible, and send the homeowner a written payment request, all dated.
- On one list: every finished roof with depreciation still out, with its finish date, holdback date, 35-day date and lien deadline.
- Between jobs: each job’s subs and suppliers paid from that job’s money first.
Zentora’s work is on the other end of the job, helping homeowners find you. To see where you show up on Google Maps, run the free Google Maps heatmap: pick your Google profile and a search, and in a few minutes you’ll see your rank at 49 points around your office.