Condo and HOA roofing, built around your fiduciary duties

Does the HOA or the homeowner pay for roof repairs?

In a Florida homeowners' association the governing documents decide, and in a condominium the association pays because the roof is a common element. That difference is the single most common source of confusion in townhome and villa communities, and it comes from the two different chapters of Florida law that govern the two structures.

A condominium is governed by Chapter 718. Florida Statute 718.113 states that maintenance of the common elements is the association's responsibility, except for limited common elements the declaration assigns to a unit owner. The roof over a condominium building is almost always a common element, so the association maintains, insures, and eventually replaces it, funded through assessments and reserves rather than by the owner underneath it.

A homeowners' association is governed by Chapter 720, and the arrangement is different in kind. In an HOA each owner owns a parcel — the lot and the structure standing on it — rather than an interior airspace inside a shared building. Chapter 720 sets no statewide default assigning roof maintenance to the association. Instead, the obligation lives in what the statute calls the governing documents: the recorded declaration of covenants and its amendments, plus the articles of incorporation and bylaws. Two townhome communities on the same street can allocate roofs in opposite directions, and both are correct for their own community.

How do we find out who maintains the roofs in our community?

Start with the maintenance article of your recorded declaration, because that is the document that actually assigns the obligation. Four checks resolve almost every case:

• The maintenance article. Find the list of components the association agrees to maintain, repair, and replace, and the matching list assigned to owners. Roofs are usually named explicitly in one of the two.
• The insurance article. If the association is obligated to insure the buildings themselves rather than only the common areas, the roof is normally its responsibility too.
• The budget and reserve schedule. An existing roof line item in the reserve schedule is strong practical evidence of how the community has always read its own documents.
• Amendments. Declarations get amended. Check that you are reading the current recorded version and not the developer's original.

When the language is ambiguous, or the declaration and the bylaws disagree, that is a question for the association's attorney. We can tell you what a roof needs and what it will cost; we cannot tell you what your covenants mean, and a roofer who offers to is doing your board no favors.

How is HOA roofing different from condominium roofing?

The main difference is portfolio shape: an HOA usually maintains many small pitched shingle roofs, while a condominium usually maintains one or a few large flat roofs. That changes the economics at almost every step, and boards that budget an HOA portfolio as though it were a single condominium roof tend to be surprised twice — first by the annual cost, then by the replacement cycle.

• Maintenance is priced per building, not per square foot. The labor in a townhome portfolio scales with the number of separate roofs to set up on, access, and walk, not with total area. Thirty small roofs cost meaningfully more to service than one roof of the same combined area.
• Replacement arrives all at once. The buildings in a community were almost always roofed in the same year, so they reach the end of their service life in the same window. A portfolio of twenty-five-year shingle roofs is not twenty-five separate small projects spread across decades; it is one very large project unless the board deliberately phases it.
• Phasing is the tool that makes it fundable. Grouping buildings into replacement phases — by condition, by exposure, by which roofs are failing first — spreads a portfolio replacement across several budget years and turns an unaffordable number into a series of planned ones.
• Per-building mobilization repeats. Staging, protection, dumpster placement, and cleanup happen once per building, so the per-square-foot cost of a small townhome roof is higher than the same system on a large flat deck. This is normal, and a proposal that ignores it is usually underscoped.
• Owner impact is more visible. Work on a townhome roof happens directly over someone's living room, driveway, and landscaping. Sequencing and communication are part of the job rather than an afterthought.

Our Maintenance Pricing Calculator prices garden-style and townhome portfolios per building for exactly this reason, and switches to a per-square-foot basis for flat, tile, and metal roofs.

What is a SIRS, and does it apply to an HOA?

A Structural Integrity Reserve Study (SIRS) is a Florida-mandated study requiring condominium and cooperative buildings three or more habitable stories tall to reserve for major structural components, including the roof — and it does not apply to homeowners' associations. The requirement lives in Florida Statute 718.112, enacted after the Surfside collapse, and it means covered condominium boards can no longer defer roof reserves or waive them away. A SIRS is only as good as the condition data behind it, and the roof is one of the components it must address. Our condition reports are formatted to feed that study directly: a grade, a remaining-life estimate, and a photo-documented basis for both.

HOA reserves work differently. Under Florida Statute 720.303(6), a homeowners' association is deemed to have provided for reserve accounts only upon the affirmative approval of a majority of the total voting interests, and those reserves can be waived or terminated the same way. An HOA that has not established statutory reserves must state so conspicuously in its financial report — that the budget does not provide for fully funded reserve accounts and that special assessments may result. The legal exposure is lower than a condominium's; the financial exposure to owners is not, because an unfunded roof portfolio still has to be paid for when it fails.

What is a milestone inspection, and does it involve the roof?

Florida's milestone inspection law requires periodic structural inspections of certain older, taller condominium and cooperative buildings by a licensed engineer or architect, and it does not apply to homeowners' associations. A milestone inspection is a structural review, not a roof maintenance visit — but the two intersect. A roof in poor condition that is letting water into the structure is exactly the kind of problem a milestone inspection is meant to surface. Keeping roofs maintained and documented reduces the chance that a milestone inspection turns up a water-intrusion problem that has been quietly compounding.

How do community associations stay insurable?

Florida associations face a hard insurance market, and the roof is one of the first things a carrier evaluates. Underwriters want to know a roof's age, its material, its condition, and whether it has wind-mitigation features — the construction details, such as deck attachment and roof-to-wall connections, that help a building resist hurricane-force wind. When that information is missing or the roof's condition is unknown, associations get non-renewed, surcharged, or forced into the state-backed insurer of last resort. We cannot promise a premium or a renewal — no one honestly can — but we can make sure your board walks into a renewal with accurate, documented answers to the questions carriers actually ask, rather than guesses.

Why do roofing warranties matter to an association's reserves?

Most commercial roofing warranties, including no-dollar-limit (NDL) warranties — coverage where the manufacturer's obligation to repair is not capped at the original material cost — require documented maintenance to remain in force. For a board, a lapsed warranty means the reserve fund, not the manufacturer, absorbs a failure it should not have to. The maintenance record we produce each year is the same record that keeps those warranties valid, which is one of the clearest ways the program protects reserves.

How does a board typically start working with us?

Most boards start with a condition assessment of their existing roofs. That produces a baseline report — grades, remaining life, and a capital outlook — that the board can use immediately for reserve and budget planning. From there, communities that want ongoing coverage enroll in the Roof Asset Management Program, which puts the roofs on a maintenance and documentation calendar and gives the board a fresh report every year to bring to its meetings. When a portfolio is approaching the end of its life, that same data drives a phased roof replacement plan rather than an emergency assessment.

If you want a rough figure before that assessment, the Roof Reserve Calculator estimates your roof's remaining useful life and a straight-line annual reserve contribution from a few inputs, and the Roof Insurance-Readiness Scorecard grades how well your roof file answers the questions carriers ask at renewal. For the statutory background, our guide to who pays for townhome roof repairs in Florida walks through the Chapter 718 and Chapter 720 split in more detail.