Does a dirty roof matter to a Citizens roof inspection?

Citizens Property Insurance Corporation's sample Roof Inspection Form, Sample Form RCF-1 03 25, sets out what a licensed inspector records about a roof.

The form requires photos of each roof slope “showing the roof’s condition.” For the predominant roof and any secondary roof, it asks for the covering material, the age and remaining useful life in years, the dates of the last roofing permit and last update, whether an update was a full or partial replacement, and an overall condition of Satisfactory or Unsatisfactory, with an explanation for the second. Under “Any visible signs of damage / deterioration?” the form's checklist prints:

• Cracking
• Cupping/curling
• Excessive granule loss
• Exposed asphalt
• Exposed felt
• Missing/loose/cracked tabs or tiles
• Soft spots in decking
• Visible hail damage

Questions on visible signs of leaks follow, for the attic or underside of the decking and for interior ceilings. Acceptable Condition, in the form's words, means each system is “working as intended” with “no visible hazards or deficiencies.” The roof section of Citizens' 4-Point Inspection Form, Sample Form Insp4pt 03 25, repeats the checklist and, “With photos of each roof slope,” can take the Roof Inspection Form's place.

Citizens' Roof Inspection Form must be signed by a Florida-licensed professional, and it will not be accepted without the dated signature of one of the licensed inspectors it lists:

• General, residential, building or roofing contractor
• Building code inspector
• Florida-licensed home inspector

The 4-Point form gives its own examples: a general, residential, or building contractor, a building code inspector and a home inspector. An exterior cleaner does not appear among the kinds either form prints. Who may inspect when an insurer requires a new roof is a statute question, answered with the right to an inspection before an insurer requires a new roof.

Citizens reads the result. The form's note to agents says the writing agent must “review in advance” each form sent with an application, and Underwriting relies on information from the licensed professional the applicant chooses, which the form says is used only to determine insurability and is “not a warranty or assurance” of the roof's “suitability, fitness or longevity.” Citizens' FAQ 2869, updated June 30, 2026, says Citizens relies on the licensed inspector to determine the roof's overall condition, and that the Satisfactory and Unsatisfactory ratings “should take into account” age, remaining useful life and “any signs of deterioration.” The same FAQ adds that Citizens expects every roof to be in acceptable condition when an application is submitted and “will take the appropriate adverse action” in accordance with Florida Statutes.

Citizens prints its own ages for its four-point and roof inspections. The four-point inspection follows the age of the home: Citizens' Inspections page says Citizens requires one for all dwelling, mobile home and property owner applications for properties more than 20 years old, and Citizens' FAQ 2852, updated February 20, 2026, ties it to new-business submissions “unless Underwriting determines that one is needed” for a renewal.

The roof's own age matters past 25 or 50 years, and Citizens' documents frame that rule differently. The Inspections page says roofs older than 25 years (“soft,” such as shingle or similar) or 50 years (“hard,” such as tile, slate, clay, concrete or metal) require documentation showing at least “five years of remaining useful life,” that a Florida-licensed inspector must inspect such a roof for visible signs of damage or deterioration and complete a Roof Inspection Form, and that a roof with less than five years left needs proof of a full-roof replacement before any policy is written.

FAQ 2513, updated March 17, 2026, instead says “Documentation of full roof replacement is required” at those ages, and for mobile homes with roofs more than 25 years old, adding “Some exceptions apply” and asking for documentation of at least five years of remaining useful life for the underwriters to review. Both framings are Citizens' own, and which governs a particular roof is for the agent and Citizens Underwriting to say. Whether a roof can be too old to clean is a separate question.

Set beside a streaked or growth-covered roof, the Roof Inspection Form's checklist is a list of damage and deterioration.

As printed, neither the roof form's checklist nor the 4-Point form's includes algae, moss, stains, discoloration or dirt. The one mention of mold in the two forms is in the 4-Point form's plumbing section, and no Citizens document read for this answer mentions algae, moss, stains, streaks, discoloration, dirt or roof cleaning.

That is a finding about printed words, not a forecast. The overall rating is the inspector's, and whether an inspector or an underwriter reads growth or staining as a sign of anything is theirs to say, in either direction; the agent who writes the application can say what else applies.

A cleaning changes how a roof looks and replaces no part of it; the form's update question offers full or partial replacement. Whether a wash before the inspector's visit moves the result is argued in cleaning a roof before an inspection. What it does to the pictures a carrier sees is set out at whether a clean roof changes insurance photos, and the worry about losing a policy over streaks belongs to whether an insurer can drop a policy over roof stains. Cracked tiles, soft spots and leaks go to a licensed roofing contractor, and the split between the trades is the point of whether a roof cleaner is the same as a roofer.

Citizens may also require underwriting field surveys of its own, exterior-only or interior and exterior, during the life of the policy. Citizens' Inspections page says an exterior survey does not require the field representative to enter the property but will “inspect the dwelling, outbuildings and roof,” and that Citizens may require the owner to “repair hazards or deficiencies.”

The roof form marks its own limit: it “does not verify loss mitigation features” and points to the Uniform Mitigation Verification Inspection Form OIR-B1-1802. How that form treats a window is part of the definition of an impact window. Each Citizens FAQ carries the date of its last update, and the agent can confirm the current wording.