How old is my roof? Finding your roof's age in Florida

Why the exact year matters

Florida's 15-year rule in §627.7011(5) counts a roof's age from the last date 100% of the roof was built or replaced to the code in effect at the time. If the roof was replaced in phases, the clock starts when the first phase began. Citizens Property Insurance looks for proof of at least 5 years of remaining life once a shingle or flat roof is over 25, or a tile or metal roof is over 50. A year or two of difference can move a roof across one of these lines.

The permit date also decides which version of the 25% repair rule applies. A roof permitted under the 2007 Florida Building Code or later (in practice, permits from March 1, 2009) is exempt from the whole-roof upgrade under §553.844(5).

Enter what you know below. The full roof age and insurance check also looks up the last re-roof permit for single-family homes in Manatee County (permits since 2017) and Charlotte County (permits 2000–2016). Our Manatee County re-roof permit study shows how many homes there have a recent permit.

What if the permit isn't online?

Older permits are often on paper or microfilm. Every Florida building department must provide public records under Chapter 119. Agencies may charge only the actual cost of copies, plus a special service charge when a request takes extensive staff or IT time, according to the Florida Attorney General. Ask the records desk for "all roofing permits for [address]" and include the parcel number.

• Hillsborough County keeps building records back to 1976. Permits from 2005 on are online; 2004 and older are handled by email request to the county's records research team.
• Palm Beach County PZB sells certified permit searches: $63, or $94 for a rush request (fee schedule checked 2026-10-12; confirm with the building department, since fee schedules are being revised under HB 803).
• Manatee County published a permit archive covering 1991 to early 2018. We have not been able to open it, so treat that date range as unverified.

What the property appraiser can and can't tell you

County property appraisers record the year the home was built and, in some counties, the roof cover material. They do not record a roof year. Florida's statewide tax-roll file has year-built fields but no roof or permit field. Use the appraiser's year built as the upper bound on roof age when no re-roof permit turns up.

Other evidence of your roof's age

• Closing documents. The seller's disclosure, the home inspection report and any 4-point inspection from your purchase usually state the roof's age. The Citizens sample 4-point form (Insp4pt 03 25) asks for roof age, remaining useful life and the date of the last roofing permit.
• Wind-mitigation form, question 4. The OIR-B1-1802 form (Rev. 04/26) records the roof covering's permit application date or product approval. Answer "A" means a permit applied for on or after March 1, 2002, or an original roof built in 2004 or later. If you have a recent form, the inspector has already looked this up.
• The contractor's paperwork. A paid-in-full contract, invoice or warranty registration gives the install date. Citizens accepts a finalized roof permit or a paid-in-full contract, work order or receipt as proof of replacement.
• Your insurer's records. Since August 1, 2026, Citizens pulls roof age automatically from third-party data (Verisk) for new applications. If the agent changes the year it retrieves, Citizens asks for proof. Private insurers use similar data. If the year on your declarations page looks wrong, a permit record is the document that settles it.

Phased replacements: if part of the roof was replaced later, insurers often date the roof by its oldest section. Citizens says so in its roof rules. Check how your insurer dates it before relying on the newer date.

Once you know the year

Run the Florida roof age check to see where the roof stands under each rule, read how Florida's 15-year roof rule works, or compare the age with how long roofs last in Florida.