Your roof after Milton: the 15-year rule, the 25% rule, and Citizens

Two years after Milton, the roof conversation around Tampa Bay is rarely about a leak. It is about a letter: the insurer says the roof is 16 years old and wants an inspection, or a contractor says the storm damage crossed the 25% line and the whole slope has to come off, or Citizens wants “documentation of remaining useful life” before it renews. Different rules with different numbers, and they get mixed together in every driveway quote. Here is what each one actually says.

The 15-year rule: Florida Statute 627.7011(5)

This is the insurance rule, and it protects you more than the letters suggest. Since 2022, an insurer may not refuse to issue or renew a homeowner’s policy solely because of the age of the roof if the roof is less than 15 years old. Under 15, roof age alone is not a reason.

At 15 years or older, the statute says the insurer must let you have the roof inspected, at your expense, by an authorized inspector before it can require a replacement as a condition of the policy. If that inspection shows the roof has five years or more of useful life remaining, the insurer may not refuse to issue or renew solely because of roof age.

What that means in practice: the letter that says “your roof is 15 years old, replace it or we will not renew” is asking for one of two things, a replacement or an inspection report. The report is the cheaper answer if the roof is sound. It is produced by a licensed roofing contractor or a licensed home inspector, and it states the roof’s material, age (from the permit record), condition, and an estimate of remaining life in years. If the roof is not sound, the same visit tells you that, and the replacement conversation starts from a fact instead of a letter.

The age comes from the permit. In Hillsborough, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Clearwater, Largo, and Pinellas Park the last roofing permit is public record, and that date is the first thing most insurers look at. A roof that was replaced without a permit has no permit date, so the age has to be established some other way (an inspector’s report, the contractor’s records, dated photos); without that, some insurers will assume the roof is original to the house.

Citizens’ documentation rule

Citizens Property Insurance, the state-backed insurer that carries a large share of Tampa Bay policies, adds its own rule on top of the statute. Its inspection requirements say that shingle roofs older than 25 years, and tile, slate, clay, concrete, or metal roofs older than 50, require documentation showing at least five years of remaining useful life. Over those ages the documentation is required, and it is the same kind of inspection report. Under them, the age rule does not apply, but Citizens has other inspection requirements that can still bring an inspector to the house, such as a four-point inspection for an older home, so ask your agent which reports your application needs.

The two ages tell you something about how the insurance industry sees materials: a shingle roof is a 25-year roof, a metal or tile roof is a 50-year roof. That difference shows up in premiums, and it is one of the reasons metal has become common on the barrier islands since 2024.

The 25% rule: Florida Statute 553.844

This is the building-code rule, and it decides whether a storm repair is a repair or a re-roof. When more than 25% of the total roof area, or of a roof section, is repaired, replaced, or recovered in any 12-month period, the whole roof or section must be brought up to the current Florida Building Code. For a shingle roof that means tear-off, secondary water barrier, current nailing, and a permit with inspections; a patch that matches the old roof is no longer allowed once you cross the line.

The exception that changed in 2022 (SB 4-D) is the one most homeowners have not heard: if the roof, or the roof section, was built, repaired, or replaced in compliance with the 2007 Florida Building Code or a later edition, only the portion being repaired, replaced, or recovered must meet the applicable current code. The rest of the roof does not have to be redone. The 2007 code took effect in March 2009, so in practice a roof permitted from 2009 onward can be repaired section by section, whatever the percentage, as long as the repaired part meets current code.

That date matters around the bay. Riverview and the newer parts of Brandon were built in waves from about 2004 to 2015; original roofs permitted from 2004 to early 2009 fall on the old side of the line, 2009 to 2015 roofs on the new side. The line follows the roof, not the house: a 2006 house still under its original roof that lost a full slope to Milton crosses the 25% line into a full re-roof of that section; the same house re-roofed under permit in 2015 is on the new side, and a 2012 house with the same damage can have the slope re-laid to current code and keep the rest. Ask the contractor which side your roof is on, and ask them to show you the permit record that proves it.

How the rules interact on one roof

Take a 2008 architectural shingle roof in Carrollwood. It is 18 years old, so the insurer can ask for an inspection (the 15-year rule); the Citizens 25-year roof documentation rule does not apply yet, though other Citizens inspections can; and, if it has never been re-roofed or repaired to the 2007 code or later since, a storm repair on it is bound by the old 25% rule. If Milton lifted a slope, the contractor is right that the slope becomes a permitted re-roof of that section. If the rest is sound, the inspection report gives the insurer what it asked for and the section re-roof is the whole job. If the rest is at the end of its life, the same visit tells you that, and the repair-versus-replace decision is made on the roof, not in the letter.

Take a 2012 shingle roof in Riverview. It is 14 years old, so age alone cannot be the insurer’s reason for a year yet; the 25% rule’s exception applies, so storm damage is repaired section by section; and the wind-mitigation features from the original build are still there, though Citizens treats a wind-mitigation report as valid for up to five years, so a 2012 form needs a new inspection to keep earning credits. The right call is an inspection and a section repair, not the whole-roof pitch.

Take a 1990s tile roof on Snell Isle. The tile is fine; the underlayment under it is at the end of its 25-to-30-year life, and that is what the inspection will say. Citizens’ 50-year rule for tile does not require documentation yet, but the 15-year statute lets the insurer ask for an inspection, and an accurate report says the underlayment is due. A tile re-roof here usually means relaying the same tile over new underlayment, permitted, with the 25% rule applying to the underlayment work.

What to ask for

• The permit date of the current roof (the contractor can look it up, and so can you, on the permit office’s portal).
• Which side of the 2007-code line the roof is on, and the permit that proves it.
• A written inspection report with the remaining-life estimate, if the insurer’s letter is the reason for the call.
• For a storm repair: the scope in writing, with photos, and whether it crosses 25% of the section.
• Nothing to sign that assigns your insurance benefits to the contractor. Florida banned assignment-of-benefits agreements on policies issued since January 1, 2023 (Statute 627.7152). The contractor documents; you own the claim.

Related pages

• Roof inspection and wind-mitigation report
• Roof replacement
• Storm and hurricane damage
• Roofers in Riverview