17 year old roof in Florida

[clarkfan1979]

I spoke with my insurance agent yesterday regarding home owners insurance for my Florida rental house. My yearly policy went up from $950 to $1150. She told me that there have been many claims over the past 2-3 years regarding wind damage from hurricanes in south Florida, so rates are going for everyone. However, for me with a 17 year old roof, they are going up even more.

My current policy expires in August. My insurance agent told me to be prepared for the insurance company to either (1) drop my policy or (2) raise my policy rate by 100% because my roof is 17 years old and asphalt. She said older metal roofs are not seeing the dramatic increase, just older asphalt. She said that it's unfortunate that some people have a 20 year old roof that is in really good shape, but the insurance companies right now do not want to insure them. 

[Sibley]

You have forewarning. Are you considering a new roof? If so, sounds like metal is the way to go. Alternatively, be prepared to pay double the premium or start researching so you can get quotes this summer.

Or, given that it's a rental - do you want to sell it?

[plantingourpennies]

Ha, I commented on your septic thread.  It seems like your property is a few years behind ours in a bunch of ways.  In 2016 or 2017 (I'm blanking on which right now), we got a notice of non-renewal on the roof on our duplex in the same neighborhood.  They basically told us if we didn't replace the roof they wouldn't renew.  If we had found a roofer willing to certify it with more than 5 years of roof life, we could have gone on to Citizens (at a higher price), but only for the time greater than the 5 years of roof life. 

It had a couple of leaks repaired at different times, and we had already done the roof certification once before, so we ate it and ended up putting on a new asphalt roof. 

What broker/insurance co do you use?  We haven't seen any significant increase in our policies on our asphalt roofs since Irma - the one that's in your neighborhood is the one that we replaced a few years ago so is fairly new.  But our primary residence is <15 miles south and is probably pushing 20 years old (it wasn't new when we bought in 2009). 

[dan.johnston]

As a GC I do a lot of roof replacements for homeowners. 17 years is a bit low, you ideally should get another 3-5 years, but we’ve done dozens of roof replacement on 14 and 15 year old roofs. It’s not so much the age, but the quality/brand of the materials used originally, and what the roof has been subjected too. 3 tab shingles don’t hold up nearly as well as architectural since they’re much thinner. Occasional hail, high winds, and constant sun exposure make them wear out more quickly as well.

Shingle warranties are a gimmick. A 30 year shingle will maybe last 25 before the cost of constant small repairs make it cheaper to replace. A ‘lifetime’ shingle is a 30 year with better marketing and more fine print.

[MrGreen]

I read an article recently that indicated Florida's homeowners insurance market is probably in a death spiral unless legislation changes around lawsuits. Apparently there have been so many hurricanes recently that lawsuits around claims now make up almost 20% of insurers' costs. You might want to read up on it.

It would make sense why they're considering kicking people to the curb. Roof leaks during high volume rain events cause considerable damage inside a house. Walls, flooring, the works. My guess is there are so many lawsuits being fought over the extent of damages that their only option to reduce litigation is to start dropping the most high-risk properties, which would be those with older roofs.

A personal example that drives home the point. We used to live in a neighborhood that was started in 2005-2006, got caught in the housing collapse, and was sold out of bankruptcy to another developer who resumed construction in 2012. When Hurricane Florence came through in 2018, almost all the original homes had roof damage. Almost none of the newer homes had roof damage. More than a few of the order homes were damaged so badly from water damage through the roof that the homeowners had to move out for months while the damage was repaired. The older roofs were only 12-13 years old and that was a Cat 1 hurricane with 24"+ of rain.

[waltworks]

This sort of thing is one of the reasons the 1% rule is worth considering. Shit (hurricanes) happens, and deferred maintenance always eventually comes due.

-W