· By UPA Claims Team
State Farm holds the largest share of the U.S. homeowners insurance market — 18.69% as of the NAIC's 2025 market share report, more than double the next-ranked insurer — so more property owners file a claim with State Farm than with anyone else. That scale is exactly why it matters to understand the process going in — especially for a roof or hail claim, where State Farm's own claims-handling practices are currently the subject of active lawsuits and state investigations.
This guide walks through the steps State Farm itself describes for filing a claim, then covers the two places property owners most often get stuck: a denial or lowball estimate on a roof claim, and a dispute over how much the damage is worth. Every specific fact below is attributed to its source — see "Sources" at the end — so you can check it yourself.
How State Farm describes its own claims process
According to State Farm's own claims page (statefarm.com/claims/home-and-property), the process has five stages:
- Prepare: document the damage with photos and notes, and take reasonable steps to prevent further damage if it is safe to do so.
- File: submit through the State Farm app, statefarm.com, or by calling 800-732-5246 ("800-SF-CLAIM"), which State Farm lists as available 24/7.
- Assignment: State Farm assigns a claim handler (or team) who will, in the company's words, "contact you to discuss the damage."
- Investigation: the claim handler determines whether the damage is covered and estimates the cost of the covered portion.
- Settlement: State Farm states that payments over your deductible "will be issued as quickly as possible" — the company does not publish a fixed number of days for this step.
Where the process gets contested: roof and hail claims
Filing is the easy part. The dispute, when there is one, almost always centers on the investigation step — specifically, whether a roof is actually damaged in a way the policy covers, and how much repairing or replacing it should cost.
That question is not abstract right now. NPR reported in April 2026 on lawsuits filed by Oklahoma homeowners alleging State Farm adopted an internal standard for hail-damaged shingles that is stricter than ordinary policy language: under the standard described in the reporting, a shingle is only treated as damaged when it has a physical fracture or is punched all the way through, while granule loss and cracking are treated as normal wear and tear rather than storm damage. The lawsuits allege this standard is applied regardless of what a given policy actually says.
These are allegations made in litigation, not a settled finding of fact — but the litigation itself is real and ongoing. As of that reporting, roughly 600 lawsuits were pending against State Farm in Oklahoma alone, and both the Oklahoma Attorney General, Gentner Drummond, and the Oklahoma Insurance Department had opened investigations into the company's claims-handling practices.
The practical takeaway: if a State Farm roof estimate or denial calls hail damage "cosmetic" or "wear and tear," that is exactly the kind of determination now being challenged in the Oklahoma litigation described above — which is a reason to have it independently reviewed, not a reason to assume it is final.
The appraisal clause: a dispute tool inside many property policies
Many homeowners policies, including many written by State Farm, include an appraisal clause. It is a contractual process for resolving a disagreement over how much a covered loss is worth — not whether it is covered at all. Each side names an appraiser, the two appraisers select a neutral umpire, and a decision agreed to by any two of the three sets the amount.
Appraisal has been actively litigated where State Farm has resisted it. In May 2025, as reported by Insurance Business magazine, an Illinois appellate court ordered State Farm into the appraisal process in a hail-damage dispute after the insurer argued the disagreement was about coverage rather than amount. A separate case, Winston v. State Farm Lloyds (opinion available via CourtListener), involved a Texas homeowner who invoked appraisal on a hail-damaged roof; the appraisal panel set a replacement figure, State Farm paid a lower, repair-based amount instead, and the dispute went to a jury.
A recurring theme across multiple states' court rulings — reported separately by the Property Insurance Coverage Law Blog — is that State Farm has argued that disagreements over the scope of repairs (repair versus full replacement) are coverage disputes rather than amount-of-loss disputes, which would place them outside appraisal. Courts in Texas, Florida, Alabama, and Illinois have rejected that argument in the cases reported. Whether appraisal applies to your specific dispute depends on your policy's exact language and the nature of the disagreement — this is a pattern worth knowing about, not a guarantee for any individual claim.
If your State Farm roof claim is denied or underpaid
A denial or a low estimate is State Farm's opening position, built from one inspection and one reading of your policy — not a final word. Two related guides walk through what to do next in detail: see "What to Do When State Farm Denies Your Roof Claim" for concrete next steps, and "State Farm Roof Claim Timeline: What to Expect" for how long each stage of a claim — including a dispute — actually tends to take.
How Unified Public Advocacy can help
The adjuster assigned to your State Farm claim works for State Farm. A public adjuster works for you. UPA independently inspects the roof, documents the damage against the policy's actual language, and — where a dispute is over the amount rather than coverage — can help evaluate whether invoking appraisal makes sense for your specific policy.
UPA is a 501(c)(3) non-profit public adjusting firm, and we never take a penny out of a property or business owner's pocket — our fee is covered by the overhead and profit built into the insurance settlement itself. If your State Farm claim has been denied, cut, or is moving slower than State Farm's own description of the process suggests it should, call 1-855-944-3473.
Sources
Every specific claim above is drawn from one of these sources, current as of publication:
- National Association of Insurance Commissioners, 2025 Market Share Reports for Property/Casualty Groups — https://content.naic.org/sites/default/files/publication-msr-pb-property-casualty.pdf
- State Farm, "Home & Property Claims" — https://www.statefarm.com/claims/home-and-property
- NPR, "Lawsuits accuse State Farm of secretly working to cut insurance payouts for hail damage" (April 28, 2026) — https://www.npr.org/2026/04/28/nx-s1-5793997/state-farm-home-insurance-hail-climate-change
- FindLaw, "Cold as Ice: Lawsuits Accuse State Farm of Implementing a Program to Deny Hail Damage Claims" — https://www.findlaw.com/legalblogs/law-and-life/cold-as-ice-lawsuits-accuse-state-farm-of-implementing-a-program-to-deny-hail-damage-claims/
- Insurance Business, "Illinois appellate court compels State Farm to honor appraisal clause in hail damage dispute" — https://www.insurancebusinessmag.com/us/news/claims/illinois-appellate-court-compels-state-farm-to-honor-appraisal-clause-in-hail-damage-dispute-535637.aspx
- Winston v. State Farm Lloyds, opinion via CourtListener — https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/10214334/winston-v-state-farm-lloyds/
- Property Insurance Coverage Law Blog, "Why Has State Farm Stopped Paying Appraisal Awards?" — https://www.propertyinsurancecoveragelaw.com/blog/why-has-state-farm-stopped-paying-appraisal-awards/
Keep Reading
Claim Denied or Underpaid? UPA Can Help
UPA is a 501(c)(3) non-profit public adjusting firm. If a loss like this one left you with a denied claim or a settlement that didn't cover the damage, we document the loss and fight for the full amount your policy owes — at no cost out of pocket.