Roof Inspections in South Florida

“Roof inspection” means three different things in Florida, and each has its own rules. There is the condition inspection: someone walks the roof and tells you what is wrong. There are insurance roof inspections, where a form goes to your insurer to prove the roof’s age and remaining life. And there is the wind mitigation inspection, a separate state form that can lower your premium. A roofing contractor can do the first, is on the lists for the insurance roof forms (for Citizens’ 4-Point, only the roof section), and is not on the list of signers insurers must accept for the third.

What we look at

We inspect the roof and document it with photos of every slope, so you can see what we saw. On a typical house that means:

• The covering: cracked, slipped or missing tile; lifted, creased or missing shingles; loose panels or fasteners on metal; blisters, splits and ponding on flat sections.
• Where the covering stops: flashing at walls, parapets and chimneys; valleys; ridges and hips; edge metal and drip edge.
• Penetrations: plumbing vents, exhaust vents, skylights and equipment stands.
• Drainage: gutters, drains and scuppers on flat and low-slope roofs.
• Inside, where we can reach it: the attic or ceiling space for stains, wet or darkened decking and signs of past leaks.

We tell you what each problem is, where it is on the roof, and whether it calls for a repair or points toward replacement. If we find an active leak, see leak detection and repair.

When your insurer asks about roof age

Florida has a specific law for this. Under F.S. 627.7011(5), an insurer may not refuse to issue or renew a homeowners policy solely because the roof is less than 15 years old.¹ If your roof is 15 years or older, the insurer must let you get a roof inspection, at your own cost, before it can require a new roof. If that inspection shows at least 5 years of useful life left, the insurer cannot refuse to issue or renew solely because of roof age.¹

The law lists who an insurer may approve for this inspection: a licensed home inspector, a certified building code inspector, a general, building or residential contractor, a roofing contractor, a professional engineer, a professional architect, or anyone else the insurer recognizes as qualified.¹ So a roofer is one of the inspectors your insurer may approve for it.

Roof age is counted from the last date 100 percent of the roof surface was built or replaced to the code in effect at the time. If the roof was replaced in stages that together covered the whole roof, the age runs from the first of those partial replacements.¹

Citizens Property Insurance

Citizens has its own requirements:

• Four-point inspection. Citizens requires a four-point inspection with applications for homes more than 20 years old. It reports the age, type and condition of the roof, electrical, plumbing and heating and cooling systems, with photos of each roof slope. Active leaks and other hazards should be fixed before you apply.²
• Older roofs. Citizens requires documentation of at least 5 years of remaining useful life for shingle roofs older than 25 years, and for tile, slate, clay, concrete or metal roofs older than 50 years. If the roof has less than 5 years left, you must show proof of a full roof replacement before Citizens will write the policy.²
• Who can sign. Citizens’ sample Roof Inspection Form (RCF-1 03 25) can be signed by a general, residential, building or roofing contractor, a building code inspector, or a Florida-licensed home inspector, and it needs photos of every roof slope.³ On Citizens’ 4-Point form, a trade-specific licensee may sign only the section for its trade, so a roofing contractor can sign the roof section and not the others.⁴

Wind mitigation is a different form, with a different list

The wind mitigation inspection uses the state form OIR-B1-1802, the Uniform Mitigation Verification Inspection Form. The current version is Rev. 04/26, effective April 1, 2026. It records the building code in force when the house was permitted, the design wind-speed region, roof slope, roof covering and its product approval, roof deck attachment, roof-to-wall attachment, roof shape (hip or other), secondary water resistance, and opening protection.⁵⁶

Florida requires rate filings to include discounts, credits or deductible reductions for wind-loss features such as roof covering performance, roof strength, roof-to-wall strength and opening protection, and requires your insurer to tell you at issuance and every renewal which ones are available.⁷⁸ OIR’s discount-range tables date from 2006 and are listed as pending updates, so ask your insurer for its current credits.⁶

Who can sign it. F.S. 627.711(2) says insurers must accept a form signed by:

• a licensed home inspector with at least 3 hours of approved hurricane mitigation training,
• a certified building code inspector,
• a general, building or residential contractor licensed under s. 489.111,
• a professional engineer,
• a professional architect, or
• anyone else the insurer recognizes as qualified.⁸

A certified roofing contractor is not on that list. A roofer’s signed form counts only if your insurer chooses to accept it. The 2026 form’s signature block and Citizens’ inspector page repeat the same list.⁸⁵⁹ For that form, hire an inspector from the list above.

A completed form is valid for up to five years if nothing material changes and no errors are found. A new roof changes items the form records, such as covering, deck attachment and secondary water resistance, so plan a new wind mitigation inspection after a re-roof.⁵⁶

What a roofer can do is the mitigation work itself. Florida law defines a roofing contractor’s scope to include required roof-deck attachments, replacing sheathing or fascia during a roof job, and strengthening roof-to-wall connections on wood-deck homes when done together with a roof covering replacement or repair.¹⁰ Those upgrades usually happen during a tile roof replacement or shingle roof replacement.

The state’s My Safe Florida Home program advertises free wind mitigation inspections, but it depends on yearly funding, opens applications in phases starting with low-income homeowners 60 and older, and assigns its own inspector; a private wind mitigation report cannot be used to enter it.¹¹

When to schedule one

• Before hurricane season. The season runs June 1 to November 30, with the climatological peak around September 10.¹² Loose tile and lifted edge metal are easier to deal with before a storm than after one.
• After a storm, even without a leak. Missing pieces and lifted edges are easier to see from the roof than from the yard. See emergency and storm damage repair for the claim deadlines.
• When a ceiling stain appears, before the water spreads.
• When your insurer asks about the roof’s age or condition.
• Before you buy a house, so you know the roof’s condition before closing.

To book an inspection, send us the address and what prompted it.