What a defensible 5-year roof certification documents under Florida’s roof age law

Mike McGilvary
Owner, Mike McGilvary Roofing, Inc.

A lot of what was published online this year said a new Florida roof-age law took effect July 1, 2026. It did not. HB 815, SB 808 and SB 128 all died in committee on March 13, 2026. The rule contractors, inspectors and property managers are working under is the one already in section 627.7011(5) of the Florida Statutes, and it has not changed.

That section draws a line between roof age and roof condition. For a roof that is at least 15 years old, an insurer must allow the homeowner to have the roof inspected, at the homeowner’s expense, by an authorized inspector the insurer approves, before replacement can be required as a condition of issuing or renewing a homeowner’s policy.

If that inspection shows five years or more of useful life remaining, the insurer may not refuse to issue or renew the policy solely because of the roof’s age.

The statute does not say what the inspection report has to look like. That is where the work falls on us. Since 2023 our company has signed more than 100 5-Year Roof Certifications, and the ones that hold up share the same structure.Findings by roof section, not a summary line

A certification that reads “roof in serviceable condition” is an opinion. A defensible one records what was observed on each part of the roof: field tile or shingle, hips and ridges, valleys, perimeter and drip edge, flashing at every wall and penetration, and the underlayment where it could be seen or probed. Each deficiency is located, photographed and described. On older Florida roofs, the failures are usually concentrated in valleys, flashing and the underlayment around penetrations. They are rarely spread evenly across the whole roof, and the report should show that.

The repairs made, in the same document

If the roof needed work to reach five years of remaining life, the certification should say what was done and where, with before-and-after photographs. Our Highland Beach file is a good example. The home is oceanfront, with a 25-year-old concrete tile roof. Rather than a full tear-off, the crew rebuilt the failing high-water-flow valleys and perimeter sections, replaced damaged sheathing, installed new self-adhered underlayment, and reinstalled each tile in its original, catalogued position so the roof kept its appearance. Every one of those steps is in the certification, because the remaining-useful-life opinion depends on them.

A remaining-useful-life opinion with the reasoning

The number is not the certification. The reasoning is. The report should state the roof system, its age, the condition of the components that govern service life, the work performed, and why those facts support five or more years. It should also state plainly what was not inspected, such as underlayment beneath undisturbed tile or decking that was not exposed.

License, date, signature and limits

The inspector’s name, license number, inspection date and signature belong on the document. So does a clear statement that a certification is a condition opinion as of the inspection date and is not a warranty. That sentence protects the homeowner, the carrier and the contractor equally.

When replacement is the honest answer

None of this is an argument against replacing roofs that need it. Some roofs are at the end of their service life, and a certification that says otherwise is worth less than the paper it is printed on. The concern is the opposite case, where age alone is treated as the diagnosis before anyone has documented the roof’s actual condition. A written, photographed, section-by-section report settles that question one way or the other, and the homeowner is better off either way.

For contractors building this into their practice, the discipline is simple to describe and hard to shortcut: inspect everything you can reach, photograph everything you find, record what you repaired, explain your conclusion, and sign your name to it.

Mike McGilvary is the owner of Mike McGilvary Roofing, Inc. / MM Roof Repair, a Florida certified roofing contractor (CCC1331721) based in Palm Beach County.

The statute text, 2026 bill status and inspection steps are kept current at https://www.mmroofrepair.com/florida-roof-age-law/.