Questions answered, statute cited
Florida roof insurance, answered
Roof age and renewals, claim deadlines, how fast the insurer must act, actual cash value versus replacement cost, roof and hurricane deductibles, matching, wind mitigation credits, and Citizens. Every answer opens with the direct answer and cites the statute it stands on.
Reviewed August 20, 2026. General information from a roofing contractor, not legal or insurance advice; whether any loss is covered is the insurer's decision under the policy.
Can my insurance company drop me just because my roof is old?
If the roof is under 15 years old, no: Fla. Stat. 627.7011(5) bars an insurer from refusing to issue or renew a homeowner's policy solely because of roof age. At 15 years or older, the insurer must let you get a roof inspection, at your expense, by an inspector the insurer authorizes; if it shows the roof has 5 or more years of useful life left, age alone still cannot be the reason.
The word doing the work in that statute is "solely." An insurer can still decline or non-renew for roof condition, prior damage, deferred maintenance, or any other lawful underwriting reason, so the rule is a shield against age-only refusals, not a guarantee of coverage. The inspection right comes with its own fine print: the homeowner pays for it, and the inspector must be one the insurer authorizes, a group that includes licensed home inspectors, certified building code inspectors, licensed general, building, residential, or roofing contractors, and licensed engineers and architects.
Source: Fla. Stat. 627.7011(5) (flsenate.gov). A documented inspection with photographs tied to findings is exactly the record this statute rewards; that is the inspection we sell, and any licensed inspector's version serves the same purpose.
How long do I have to file a roof claim after a storm in Florida?
Under Fla. Stat. 627.70132, notice of a new or reopened property insurance claim must reach the insurer within 1 year of the date of loss, and a supplemental claim within 18 months. For hurricanes and other verified weather events, the date of loss is the storm's landfall or verification date, not the day you noticed the damage. Report immediately; the clock is shorter than most people assume.
Three cautions. First, these deadlines apply to claims under current law; older losses can be governed by the longer deadlines that existed before, so never assume an old claim is closed or open without checking with the insurer or the state's insurance consumer helpline. Second, notice must be given "in accordance with the terms of the policy," so the policy's own notice provisions still matter. Third, this notice deadline is separate from the time limit for filing a lawsuit. None of this is legal advice; it is a reason to report damage the week it happens rather than the season after.
Sources: Fla. Stat. 627.70132 (flsenate.gov) and the Florida DFS property insurance changes page (myfloridacfo.com). The storm response playbook puts carrier notification in day one for exactly this reason.
How long does my insurance company have to pay or deny my roof claim?
Florida gives residential property insurers hard clocks under Fla. Stat. 627.70131: acknowledge your claim communication within 7 days, begin the investigation within 7 days of receiving proof-of-loss statements, conduct any physical inspection within 30 days of those statements, and pay or deny the claim, or a portion of it, within 60 days after receiving notice, with interest owed on late payments.
The caveats matter as much as the clocks. The insurer may pay or deny a portion of the claim inside the 60 days, which is why partial payments are common. The deadlines can be tolled during mediation or when requested claim information is not provided, and a narrow "factors beyond the insurer's control" exception exists that requires a state order and caps any extension at 30 days. A missed deadline alone also does not create a lawsuit; the statute says so expressly. What the clocks reward is a claim file that is organized from day one, because a documented claim is harder to leave in the slow lane.
Source: Fla. Stat. 627.70131 (flsenate.gov). These deadlines apply to residential coverage and to commercial structures of 10,000 square feet or less.
Why did my roof claim pay actual cash value instead of the full cost to replace it?
Florida insurers must offer replacement cost coverage before issuing a homeowner's policy, but you may have bought a policy that pays actual cash value, which subtracts depreciation. Even on a replacement cost policy, Fla. Stat. 627.7011 lets the insurer pay actual cash value first and release the withheld depreciation as the repair work is actually performed, so an initial ACV check is normal, not final.
The practical translation: the first payment on a replacement cost dwelling claim must be at least the actual cash value of the loss minus the deductible, and the rest arrives as work happens and expenses are incurred. One roof-specific wrinkle exists: when a policy carries a separate roof deductible, the insurer may hold the roof portion at actual cash value until you show reasonable proof you paid that deductible. Which coverage you actually have is on the declarations page, and whether any particular loss is covered is always the insurer's decision under the policy.
Source: Fla. Stat. 627.7011 (flsenate.gov).
How big can a separate roof deductible be in Florida?
Florida law permits, but does not require, a separate roof deductible on homeowner policies, capped at the lesser of 2 percent of the dwelling coverage limit or 50 percent of the roof replacement cost. It must come with a premium credit, you must be able to reject it on a state-approved form, and, critically, it cannot be applied to a roof loss caused by a hurricane.
The hurricane carve-out is the fact most worth keeping: a hurricane roof loss runs under the hurricane deductible instead, never both, and the statute bars stacking any other deductible on the same loss. A policy that carries a roof deductible must also disclose it in bold 18-point type on the page right behind the declarations page, so the place to check is the front of your own policy. Whether accepting the deductible for the premium credit is a good trade is a conversation for your agent, not for a roofing contractor.
When does my hurricane deductible apply instead of my regular deductible?
The hurricane deductible applies to losses during a defined window: it opens when the National Weather Service issues a hurricane warning for any part of Florida and closes 72 hours after the last watch or warning ends. It is a percentage of your dwelling coverage limit, not of the claim, and it applies once per calendar year across all hurricane losses that year.
Florida insurers must offer hurricane deductible choices of $500, 2 percent, 5 percent, and 10 percent of the dwelling limit, with some tiering at higher coverage amounts, and the declarations page must state the deductible's actual dollar value so you never have to compute the percentage yourself. After the hurricane deductible is used up in a calendar year, later hurricane losses that year run under the other applicable deductible rather than free of any deductible. Outside the hurricane window, ordinary wind losses fall under the policy's all-other-perils deductible, which is typically a flat dollar amount per claim.
Sources: Fla. Stat. 627.701 (flsenate.gov) and Fla. Stat. 627.4025 (flsenate.gov).
Only one slope of my roof was damaged. Will insurance pay to match the rest?
Sometimes. Fla. Stat. 626.9744 says that when a covered loss requires replacing items and the replacements do not match adjoining items in quality, color, or size, the insurer shall make reasonable repairs or replacement in adjoining areas. The statute never mentions roofs specifically, and what counts as reasonable matching on a roof is decided claim by claim, subject to the policy's own terms.
So the honest framing is: a real matching duty exists in Florida law, it is qualified by the word "reasonable" and by the policy, and nobody can promise it produces a full roof replacement in any given claim. What strengthens a matching conversation is evidence: photographs of the mismatch, the manufacturer and product line of the existing covering, and a documented inspection that ties the damage to locations. The documentation guide covers exactly that record.
Source: Fla. Stat. 626.9744 (flsenate.gov).
What is a wind mitigation inspection, and will it lower my premium?
A wind mitigation inspection documents your home's wind-resistant features, roof covering, deck attachment, roof-to-wall connections, secondary water barrier, opening protection, on Florida's uniform OIR-B1-1802 form. Florida law requires insurers to include actuarially reasonable credits for those features in their rates, but no fixed percentage exists; the discount depends on the insurer's approved filing and your home's features.
Because the credit varies by carrier, feature, and territory, no contractor can honestly promise a specific savings number, and this page will not. What you can do: ask your insurer for its mitigation credit disclosure, which state law requires it to provide, and get the current version of the 1802 form filled out by a qualified inspector after any reroof, since a new roof frequently changes the answers. The state's My Safe Florida Home program has at times offered free mitigation inspections; its current status is on the state's own site.
Sources: Fla. Stat. 627.0629 (flsenate.gov) and the Florida OIR wind mitigation resources page (floir.gov), which hosts the current form.
What does Citizens actually require for an older roof?
Citizens' current underwriting rules require documentation, not automatic replacement, for older roofs on personal residential policies: shingle and other soft roofs over 25 years old, and metal, tile, slate, or concrete roofs over 50, need either proof of full replacement or an inspection showing at least 5 years of remaining useful life. Citizens makes the final eligibility call either way.
The common version of this story, "Citizens drops you at 25 years," is not what the rule says: 25 years is where the documentation requirement starts, and the remaining-useful-life inspection is the path through it. When Citizens accepts that inspection, it extends eligibility for up to five years at most, however strong the report. These are underwriting rules Citizens can revise by bulletin, so treat the linked FAQ as the living source rather than any contractor's summary, including this one.
Source: Citizens Property Insurance, roof age requirements FAQ (citizensfla.com). The statutory 15-year rule in the first question above applies to Citizens as well.
Keep going
The rest of the library
The hurricane response questions cover contracts, door-knockers, and deductible offers after a storm; the roof rules page covers permits and the 25 percent rule.
The record these rules reward
A documented inspection, before you need it.
Roof age rules, claim deadlines, and matching conversations all run on evidence. K. Simon Construction inspections produce a dated, written record with photographs tied to findings; the insurer decides coverage, and the record is what informs that decision.