If a letter has arrived telling you your policy won't renew unless the roof is replaced, you are in extremely common company. Florida carriers have spent the last several years tightening what they'll insure, and roof age is the easiest thing for an underwriter to check without leaving the office.
The thresholds vary by carrier, but the pattern is consistent: shingle roofs start drawing scrutiny somewhere around fifteen years, tile and metal considerably later because they last longer. What matters is that these are underwriting rules, not engineering findings. Nobody inspected your roof. They looked up a permit date.
That distinction is useful, because it means the decision can sometimes be argued with evidence. A roof in genuinely good condition, documented with a current inspection report and photographs, will occasionally satisfy a carrier that would otherwise have declined on age alone. It is worth one phone call to ask what documentation they would accept before you assume replacement is the only path.
Often, though, the age flag and the roof's actual condition point the same direction. Fifteen Florida summers is real wear: granule loss, brittle shingles, sealed strips that have let go, pipe boots cracked through. If that's what an inspection finds, the letter simply arrived before the leak did, which is a better order for things to happen in.
One thing worth knowing before you spend the money: a new roof installed and documented to current code earns wind mitigation credits, and those credits reduce your premium every year afterward. Ask your agent to re-rate the policy once the permit closes. Homeowners routinely skip this step and quietly overpay for years.
If you've had one of these letters, we'll inspect the roof for free and give you the photographs and the honest condition assessment either way — whether that supports replacing it now or arguing for another few years.