If you've searched "Florida roof age insurance" anytime this year while getting ready to list a home in Kendall, you've probably read that a new law took effect July 1, 2026, requiring insurers to treat older roofs more fairly. Several insurance agency blogs and roofing contractor sites describe Senate Bill 808 and its House companion, HB 815, as settled law right now, in September 2026.
They didn't pass. Both bills died in committee on March 13, 2026, the day Florida's legislative session ended without a state budget. The Florida Roofing and Sheet Metal Association, which lobbied against the bills for reasons unrelated to homeowner protection, says its team "successfully defeated" both measures. That means the rule governing your roof at closing this fall is the one that was already on the books before this year's session started, not the expanded version some sites still describe.
For a neighborhood built almost entirely between the 1970s and early 2000s, that distinction is not academic. It's the difference between telling a buyer's lender the correct story and telling them the wrong one.
What Actually Happened in Tallahassee
SB 808, filed by Senator Corey Simon, and HB 815, filed by Representative Michael Gottlieb, would have expanded the definition of an "authorized inspector" for roof age determinations to include more categories of roof consultants and observers, and would have required insurers to treat low-slope and steep-slope roofs differently when deciding whether to require replacement. Both bills carried a July 1, 2026 effective date printed right in the filed text, which is likely why so many articles assumed passage. Filed bills always list a proposed effective date. That date only means something once the bill clears both chambers and reaches the governor's desk. Neither of these did. Florida's own legislative tracking pages for SB 808 and HB 815 both show the same final entry: died in committee, March 13, 2026.
If you're a Kendall seller who read one of the "takes effect July 1" articles and told a buyer's agent or a lender that your 22-year-old tile roof now falls under stronger protections, you were working from a bill that no longer exists.
What Some Sites Still Say vs. What's True This Fall
| The claim you may have read | What's actually in effect as of September 2026 |
|---|---|
| SB 808/HB 815 took effect July 1, 2026, with expanded inspector categories and low-slope/steep-slope distinctions | Both bills died in committee March 13, 2026. Neither became law. |
| Roof age protections are new this year | The controlling law is Florida Statute 627.7011(5), in place before this session began, with 2024's House Bill 1611 already having expanded who can perform the qualifying inspection |
| Citizens treats every roof the same age threshold | Citizens sets separate thresholds: 25 years for shingle roofs, 50 years for tile, slate, clay, concrete, or metal |
Why Kendall Feels This More Than Most of Miami-Dade
Kendall's housing stock is not evenly distributed across decades. Roofing contractors who work the area consistently describe the same pattern: the heaviest concentration of single-family construction landed between 1980 and 2010, with subdivisions like Kendale Lakes, The Hammocks, The Crossings, and Country Walk built out during that stretch and East Kendall and Kendall West carrying an even older mix going back to the 1970s. Concrete and clay tile is the dominant material in the area's HOA-governed communities, and the underlayment beneath that tile, not the tile itself, is what typically fails first. Homes from the earliest wave have often been reroofed once already, and those replacement roofs are now themselves approaching the age where a carrier starts asking questions.
That matters for a very practical reason. A home in Three Lakes with its original 1994 tile roof is now more than 30 years old. Nothing about that automatically disqualifies it from coverage, but it does mean the roof is a live topic the moment an offer comes in, and the seller who has already documented its condition controls that conversation instead of reacting to it mid-contract.
The Rule That's Actually in Effect
Florida Statute 627.7011(5) is the law doing the real work here, and it predates this year's failed bills. Under that statute, an insurer cannot refuse to issue or renew a policy solely because a roof is under 15 years old. Once a roof crosses that 15-year mark, the homeowner has the right to a roof inspection performed by an authorized inspector before the insurer can require replacement as a condition of coverage. If that inspection documents at least five years of remaining useful life, an age-only denial is off the table. House Bill 1611, passed in 2024, already broadened who counts as an authorized inspector to include licensed roofing contractors, not just engineers and building code officials, which makes it easier and often cheaper to get that documentation than it was a few years ago.
This is the protection a Kendall seller actually has. It's real, it's already law, and it doesn't require the bills that died in March.
Where Citizens Draws a Different Line
Statute sets the floor every insurer has to respect. Citizens Property Insurance, as the carrier many older Kendall homes end up with when private markets decline them, layers its own underwriting practice on top of that floor. Citizens requires a four-point inspection, covering roof, electrical, plumbing, and HVAC, for many new applications on homes over 20 years old. On the roof specifically, Citizens treats a standard or architectural shingle roof as old once it passes 25 years, while tile, slate, clay, concrete, or metal roofs get a longer runway to 50 years before the same scrutiny applies. An older roof in either category can still qualify if a licensed inspector documents at least five years of remaining life.
Run the numbers on Kendall's housing stock and the gap becomes obvious. A shingle roof installed during the 1990s boom is now past Citizens' 25-year shingle threshold even though it's well within the statute's 15-year floor for basic protection against denial. Legal is not the same as effortless. The RUL inspection is what closes that gap, and it's the document that keeps a shingle roof from becoming a financing delay three weeks before closing.
The Wrinkle That Started This August
Something did change on the Citizens side this year, separate from the bills that failed. Since August 1, 2026, new Citizens applications have been subject to an automatic pull of the last roof update year from third-party roof data when that information is available, rather than relying only on what the applicant reports. That makes accurate permit records more valuable than they've been in past years. If a Kendall seller replaced a roof in 2015 but the county permit was never closed out, or the paperwork lists a different completion date than what actually happened, that mismatch can now surface automatically during underwriting instead of getting caught later.
Before You List a Kendall Home With an Original Roof
A few steps make this a non-issue instead of a closing-week scramble:
- Pull your Miami-Dade RER permit history for the property. Most of Kendall is unincorporated county, so roof permits run through the county building department rather than a city hall, and a closed-out permit is the cleanest proof of a roof's true age.
- If your roof is 15 years or older, get a remaining useful life inspection from a licensed roofing contractor before you list, not after an offer arrives. HB 1611 already made this easier to schedule.
- If your home sits in an HOA like The Hammocks, The Crossings, or Kendale Lakes, keep in mind that architectural review for roof material and color runs alongside, not instead of, the county permit process. Budget time for both if replacement becomes necessary.
- Know which Citizens threshold applies to your roof material. Shingle at 25 years and tile or metal at 50 years are two very different conversations to be having with a buyer's lender.
For Buyers: What to Ask Before You Waive an Inspection Contingency
If you're buying in Kendall, the roof's age and material tell you what conversation to expect with your own insurer, not just the seller's. Ask for the permit history, not just a verbal roof age. Ask whether a four-point or RUL inspection already exists for the property. And if you're financing through a lender that requires proof of insurability before closing, build in enough time for that inspection to happen rather than assuming a listing's stated roof age will be accepted at face value by your carrier.
A Couple of Questions Worth Settling Early
Does a 40-year-old tile roof mean the house is uninsurable? Not automatically. Citizens' own threshold for tile, clay, concrete, and metal roofs is 50 years, and a documented RUL inspection showing five or more years of remaining life can keep a policy in force even past that. The condition of the underlayment matters more than the calendar.
If I'm already insured through Citizens, does the August 1 change affect my current policy? Based on how Citizens has described it, the automatic third-party roof-age lookup applies to new applications with effective dates on or after August 1, 2026, not to existing policies at renewal. If you're selling and the buyer is applying fresh, though, this is exactly the process their application will run through.
Roof age is one of the few things in a Kendall transaction that's fully within a seller's control to document ahead of time. If you're weighing whether your home's roof needs attention before you list, or you want a read on what a specific Kendall subdivision's insurance and closing patterns actually look like right now, the team at Gilman Group can walk through it with you. Get your free home valuation and we'll talk through the roof question at the same time.
