How the schedule works
To get from replacement cost to actual cash value (ACV), a carrier depreciates each component by its age. A useful life depreciation schedule assigns an expected lifespan to items such as a shingle roof, HVAC, or water heater, then reduces the value in proportion to how much of that life has been used. A component near the end of its assigned useful life is depreciated heavily, which lowers the ACV payment. Under a replacement cost policy that depreciation is usually recoverable once you complete the repairs.
Where it bites in Florida
Depreciation schedules drive the biggest fights on roof and older-home claims, and two Florida angles matter. First, the schedule sets the ACV the carrier pays up front, so an aggressive lifespan assumption shrinks that first check, and on roofs it can overlap with a separate roof surface payment schedule. Second, roof useful life is now a coverage issue: under Fla. Stat. 627.7011, for a roof 15 years or older an insurer generally cannot refuse to issue or renew based on roof age alone if an authorized inspection shows the roof has 5 or more years of useful life remaining. Ask the carrier to produce the depreciation schedule it used, because the assumptions behind it are negotiable.