Reading a Summary of Loss: RCV, ACV and the Net Claim Trap

Written by Nathaniel Davis, owner of Roof Gutter Now — a licensed exterior restoration contractor in Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York. Updated August 2026

The four lines that matter

• Replacement Cost Value (RCV) — what the work costs today, before anything is subtracted.
• Depreciation — value lost to age and wear, subtracted from RCV.
• Actual Cash Value (ACV) — RCV minus depreciation. This is the first cheque.
• Deductible — subtracted again, producing the net claim payment.

Recoverable depreciation is released after the work is completed and documented. On a replacement cost policy that is your money, held until you prove the work happened.

Where claims get lost

Two failures account for most unrecovered depreciation. The first is never submitting a certificate of completion, so the carrier has no trigger to release it. The second is missing the deadline in the policy — commonly one to two years from the date of loss.

If the policy is actual cash value rather than replacement cost, there is no second cheque at all. Confirm which you have before signing a contract based on the RCV figure.

Common questions