A plain-language Florida guide for Palm Beach County
The short version
If your roof is getting older, roof age and home insurance in Florida meet in one state rule: a roof under fifteen years old cannot, by age alone, be why a company refuses to issue or renew your policy. At fifteen or older, you may have it inspected at your cost before a company can require a new roof.
Call (561) 973-9998 and a licensed Florida agent runs the comparison with you.
On BocaRatonInsuranceFL.com, Matt Williams, a licensed Florida insurance agent, explains how the age of your roof is treated when a homeowner's policy is written or renewed, and what a roof report can do for you. Roof age can decide whether a company will issue or renew the policy at all, so it helps to know the rule before a renewal notice arrives. Sources are linked as you go.
Section 627.7011 of the Florida Statutes sorts roofs into two groups at the 15-year mark. When the roof on a house is less than 15 years old, an insurer cannot turn down a new homeowner's policy, or decline to renew one, solely because of the roof's age.
The word carrying the weight is "solely." Age cannot be the reason by itself, but everything else a company weighs is still in play.
Roofs over an older housing stock
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020-2024, table DP04; figures checked
Once a roof is at least 15 years old, the same statute gives you a step the company has to allow. Before it can insist on a new roof to write or keep your policy, you may bring in an authorized inspector to examine the roof, and the statute puts that inspection "at the homeowner's expense."
If the report shows the roof still has useful life of 5 years or more, roof age alone stops being a lawful reason to refuse the policy or its renewal.
The inspector must be approved by the insurer and must also be one of these: a state-licensed home inspector, a state-certified building code inspector, a general, building or residential contractor licensed under Florida law, a roofing contractor, a licensed professional engineer or architect, or another person or business the insurer accepts as qualified for a general home inspection. Confirm your choice with the company before you pay for the inspection.
The same section says it does not limit a company's ability to reject or nonrenew for other lawful reasons. Age loses its power as a stand-alone reason; nothing else does.
The statute dates a roof from the last time its entire surface, 100 percent of it, was built or replaced under the code in force then. A roof redone in stages that ended up covering the whole surface counts from its first partial replacement, and a patch on one section does not move the date.
The section does not apply to mobile home policies. Mobile homes are 2.8% of Palm Beach County housing units (American Community Survey, 2020 to 2024); if yours is one, read your own policy terms.
The roof subsection speaks to issuing and renewing, not to what a policy on an older roof costs, and companies can read the same roof differently.
Census figures put the median year built for housing units in Palm Beach County at 1986. Units from the 1980s make up 26.3% of the county's housing, the 1970s account for 18.5%, and units built in 2020 or later are 1.8% (American Community Survey, 2020 to 2024). On a house built decades ago, the year built says little about the roof overhead, so the last full replacement date is the one to document.
Check the year built at the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser, search permit history in the city's Boca eHub portal, and pull the roofer's final invoice or any earlier roof, wind mitigation or 4-point report.
If the roof is past the statute's age line, book someone the company accepts before you agree to replace anything. If a 4-point inspection is requested too, read how to pass a 4-point inspection first.
Each company then works from the same facts, and you stop retelling the roof's history on every call.
An agency tied to a single company can tell you how that company views your roof, and nothing more. Matt Williams is independent, representing many companies, and one call to him or the licensed insurance agents on his team can carry your roof date and inspection report to several of them. You get same day quotes to compare instead of repeating the roof's story at every agency. A quote does not bind coverage, cancel your policy or move you to a new company, so asking puts nothing you have at risk.
Start with home insurance for Boca Raton houses or call (561) 973-9998.
You do. The statute places it "at the homeowner's expense," and the inspector has to be one the company approves, so confirm before you book.
Yes, for reasons other than age. Under s. 627.7011, a roof under 15 years old cannot be the only reason, but the section leaves other lawful reasons open.
Then the statute's bar on an age-only refusal no longer helps, and a company may require a new roof as a condition of coverage. Each company makes its own call, so compare before you sign a roofing contract.
Still weighing it?
Go through your declarations page with a licensed Florida agent; there is no charge for the call.
(561) 973-9998Or leave your detailsCompare before the renewal arrives
Describe what you have once. A licensed Florida agent checks it against several companies for Boca Raton, Palm Beach County and nearby towns, and the decision stays yours.
