Do I have a right to an inspection before an insurer requires a new roof?

The right to an inspection is not a general right to have a roof looked at before any insurance decision. It sits inside one subsection of one statute, and it switches on only when every one of these lines up.

• (5)(e), the policy date. Subsection (5) applies to homeowners' insurance policies issued or renewed on or after July 1, 2022.
• (5)(c), the roof's age. The clause opens with the words “For a roof that is at least 15 years old.”
• (5)(c), what the insurer is doing. The insurer is requiring replacement of the roof of a residential structure as a condition of issuing or renewing a homeowner's insurance policy.
• (6)(a) and (6)(b), the kind of policy. The section does not apply to policies not considered homeowners' policies as that term is commonly understood in the insurance industry, and it does not apply to mobile home policies.

The section itself is headed “Homeowners' policies; offer of replacement cost coverage and law and ordinance coverage.” The roof-age language sits in its subsection (5), and the last item above comes from subsection (6), which sets the section's outer limits.

Here is the sentence in 627.7011(5)(c) that creates the right. For a roof at least 15 years old, an insurer “must allow a homeowner to have a roof inspection performed by an authorized inspector at the homeowner's expense before requiring the replacement of the roof of a residential structure as a condition of issuing or renewing a homeowner's insurance policy.”

Two parts of that sentence carry most of the weight. The first is “at the homeowner's expense”: the statute gives an opportunity to be inspected, and the homeowner pays the inspector. The second is the ending, “as a condition of issuing or renewing a homeowner's insurance policy.” The right is tied to a replacement the insurer requires in that setting.

For a roof under 15 years old, paragraph (5)(b) speaks instead, and it is about age alone. Whether a carrier can act on stains, or on grounds other than age, is a separate question, taken up on whether an insurer can drop a policy over roof stains.

Paragraph (5)(a) defines “authorized inspector” as an inspector who is approved by the insurer and who is one of the following, in the statute's list:

• a licensed home inspector;
• a certified building code inspector;
• a licensed general, building or residential contractor, or a roofing contractor;
• a licensed professional engineer;
• a licensed professional architect; or
• any other individual or entity the insurer recognizes as having the qualifications to properly complete a general inspection of a residential structure insured with a homeowner's policy.

Both halves count. Being on the list is not enough without the insurer's approval, and which inspectors a given insurer approves is a question only that insurer answers. A roof cleaner is not one of the kinds the list names, and anyone outside those kinds counts only if the insurer recognizes them under the last item. A cleaning takes growth and stains off a surface. Roof repair is roofing-contractor work under the definitions in Florida's Chapter 489, and that boundary is set out under where a cleaning stops and a roofing contractor starts.

The inspection matters because of the next sentence in (5)(c). The insurer may not refuse to issue or refuse to renew “solely because of roof age” if an authorized inspector's inspection “indicates that the roof has 5 years or more of useful life remaining.” The finding is the inspector's to make, and the word doing the work is “solely.” A five-year finding takes age off the table as the only reason for a refusal; it does not speak to any other reason a carrier may give.

Age itself is counted by date. Paragraph (5)(d) says a roof's age is calculated from the last date on which 100 percent of the roof's surface area was built or replaced under the building code in effect at the time, or, where partial replacements over time added up to the whole roof, from the initial date of the partial replacement. The subsection names nothing else that feeds that calculation. Algae streaks, a fresh cleaning or a faded color do not appear in it.

That is why a cleaning and an inspection answer different questions. Whether a cleaning answers an insurer's letter is covered in the Florida rules that touch a roof cleaning, and whether the timing of a cleaning changes an inspection is its own page: cleaning a roof before an inspection.

The statute sets the frame. It does not decide an individual case, and several of the questions a homeowner has next belong to someone specific.

For a consumer question about a homeowner's policy, the Florida Department of Financial Services, Division of Consumer Services, runs an insurance assistance line at (850) 413-3089, Monday through Friday, 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM EST. It publishes insurance consumer information as well.