Filing hail/wind claim on old roof

[Pete B.]

I’m in Florida and have a 17 year old roof, so my premium just went way up on my insurance. One of my neighbors just got a new roof put on, it turns out we had a hail storm last year and his roof was covered by insurance. So I had a roofer come out and he found hail and wind damage on mine too, and thinks mine will be covered as well.

An insurance broker I’d talked to recently on quotes touched base with me, so I told him about the roof situation. He told me never to file a claim on an old roof just to get a new one, and the claim will follow me and hurt me for years? But if I have legitimate damage, why not?