Guides
Roof inspections: what insurance inspectors look for
What underwriters, roofers and adjusters check on your roof, which defects hurt coverage, how Florida and Citizens handle roof condition, and how to prepare.
Insurance inspectors look at your roof's condition, not its looks: the age and type of covering, signs of wear such as granule loss, curling and cracking, damaged or missing shingles, failed flashing, soft decking and any evidence of past leaks or patching. The result is usually a judgment about remaining useful life, and that judgment can decide whether a company writes your policy, renews it, adds a roof exclusion, or asks you to repair or replace the roof first.
"Roof inspection" covers four different jobs, and they get confused. Knowing which one you are facing tells you who is looking, what they will write down and what you can do about it.
The four kinds of roof inspection
| Type | Who orders it | What it decides |
|---|---|---|
| Underwriting inspection | The insurer, often with aerial or drone imagery or a visiting inspector, at application or after the policy starts | Whether the roof is acceptable, and on what terms |
| Roof condition report or certification | You, from a roofer, general contractor, home inspector or engineer the insurer accepts | Documents condition and remaining life to support an application or renewal |
| Claim inspection | The insurer's adjuster or engineer, sometimes your own roofer | Whether storm damage exists and whether to repair or replace; see will insurance pay for a roof replacement? |
| Wind mitigation inspection | You, from a qualified signer | Construction features that earn a wind discount, not condition; see wind mitigation inspections and discounts |
This guide is about the first two. Underwriting inspections after you buy a policy, including photo surveys that arrive as a letter, are covered in insurance inspections after you buy a policy and aerial imagery: how insurers inspect roofs from the sky. A four-point inspection includes the roof alongside electrical, plumbing and HVAC.
What the inspector is trying to answer
Two questions, in this order. Is the roof in good enough condition that a covered storm, not ordinary failure, is the likely next cause of a claim? And how much life does it have left? The second drives the underwriting decision. A roof can be 18 years old and rated as fine for five more years, or 12 years old and rated as failing because of installation or exposure.
Insurers set roof-age and condition rules in their underwriting guidelines, and those rules differ by company, state and roofing material. They are not in your policy language. That is part of why a roof can surprise you at renewal.
What gets looked at
| Finding | What it suggests | Usual consequence |
|---|---|---|
| Granule loss, bare patches, granules collecting in gutters | Aging asphalt shingles losing their protective surface | Shortens estimated remaining life |
| Curling, cupping or buckling shingles | Age, heat or poor attic ventilation | Reads as end-of-life; common repair-or-replace trigger |
| Cracked, split or missing shingles, exposed nails | Wind or impact damage, or fatigue | Repair request; may be a claim if storm-caused |
| Lifted or unsealed shingle tabs | Weak wind resistance | Underwriting concern in wind-prone areas |
| Cracked pipe boots, rusted or loose flashing | Cheap, common leak points | Usually a repair requirement, not a replacement |
| Sagging, soft or stained decking | Moisture damage in the structure | Serious; often a replacement requirement |
| Moss, algae, debris, overhanging limbs | Moisture held against the roof, abrasion | Cleanup or trimming request |
| Patches, tarps, coatings, sealant | Previous leaks or a roof stretched past its life | Questions about age and prior claims |
| Ponding on a low-slope section | Drainage problem | Condition concern, possible exclusion |
| Multiple layers of roofing | Extra weight, hides decking condition | May require tear-off at replacement |
| Unrepaired storm damage | Hail or wind from an earlier event | Repair requirement; may affect any new claim |
Metal, tile and slate roofs have their own list: loose or corroded fasteners and cracked or slipped tiles. Insurers often allow longer age limits for them than for shingles.
The most useful thing to know from this table is that many problems are cheap. A cracked rubber pipe boot or a few missing shingles can mean a "poor" condition note on a roof that is otherwise sound. Fix those before the inspector comes.
How Florida handles it
Florida set statutory rules for roof age in 2022. For policies issued or renewed on or after July 1, 2022, an insurer may not refuse to write or renew a homeowners policy solely because of roof age if the roof is under 15 years old. For a roof 15 years or older, the insurer must allow an inspection by an authorized inspector, at the homeowner's expense, before it requires replacement, and it may not refuse solely for roof age if the inspection shows five or more years of remaining useful life. Roof age runs from the last date the entire roof surface was built or replaced to code. "Authorized inspector" includes licensed home inspectors, certified building code inspectors, licensed general, building, residential and roofing contractors, professional engineers, architects, and anyone else the insurer recognizes (Fla. Stat. 627.7011). Insurers may still decline for other lawful reasons. See Florida.
The state-backed insurer Citizens Property Insurance Corporation publishes its own thresholds. As of its inspections page, read October 10, 2026, Citizens requires a four-point inspection for applications on properties more than 20 years old, and roofs older than 25 years (soft coverings such as shingle) or 50 years (hard coverings such as tile, slate, clay, concrete or metal) need documentation of at least five years of remaining useful life. A roof with less than five years left requires proof of full replacement before a policy is written. A Florida-licensed inspector completes the Roof Inspection Form, and Citizens updated the form in March 2025 (Citizens inspections, bulletin of March 20, 2025).
Those are Florida and Citizens numbers. Other states and other insurers set their own, and many states have no roof-age statute at all. roof age limits: when insurers won't cover an old roof covers the age-limit side.
Preparing for an inspection
- Gather paper. The roofing permit, invoice or contract, the shingle product and manufacturer, any warranty, and photographs from the day the roof was finished. Many insurers want the installation year, and an undocumented roof is assumed to be older.
- Do a ground-level walk. From the yard, look for lifted or missing shingles, dark streaks and debris in the valleys. Look at the gutters for granules. In the attic, check for daylight, staining or damp insulation under the deck. Do not climb onto the roof yourself.
- Fix the small things. Replace cracked pipe boots, re-seal exposed fasteners, remove debris and trim limbs touching the roof. Keep receipts.
- Ask for the form the insurer will accept before you hire anyone, and who can sign it. A report on the wrong form, or signed by someone the insurer does not accept, wastes the fee.
- Hire the inspector yourself, and prefer someone who is not also selling you a roof. A contractor with a replacement to sell has a reason to write a short remaining life. You can pay for a second opinion from an independent home inspector or engineer if the numbers look off.
- Read the finished report before it goes to the insurer. Check the roof age, covering type, remaining life and condition rating. Ask for corrections to factual errors.
- Keep a copy and send the final version to your agent in writing.
If the report goes against you
A "fail" does not mean you must buy a new roof tomorrow. Ask in writing what the insurer needs to keep the policy: repairs of specific items, a roof certification, a replacement by a certain date. Insurers often allow time to cure. Ask for a copy of the inspection report and photos; the findings may include errors, such as a different house or a tarp from a previous owner. If the insurer sends a nonrenewal or conditional renewal notice, state rules on notice periods apply; see your home insurance was nonrenewed: what to do now and the nonrenewal action plan. A repair or replacement can also reset the roof's age on your policy once you report it.
The report is not a warranty. A roofer who writes "five years remaining" is giving an opinion, and no one promises that a covered storm won't arrive in year two.
Key takeaways
- Insurance roof inspectors look at age, covering type, wear, damage, flashing, decking and signs of prior leaks, and then estimate remaining useful life. That estimate drives approval, renewal and roof terms.
- Wind mitigation inspections and roof condition inspections are different documents for different purposes, and the form your insurer accepts is specific.
- Florida lets homeowners with roofs 15 years or older submit an inspection showing five or more years of remaining life, and Citizens sets its own age and remaining-life thresholds. Rules in other states differ.
- Fix cheap defects such as pipe boots, loose shingles and debris before an inspection, hire your own inspector, and keep a copy of every report.
- A failing report is a request for corrective action, not the end of your coverage. Ask what the insurer will accept and by when.