The most widely used roofing material might soon be on the outs with state policymakers — at least it’s getting there for the president and CEO of the state’s largest property insurer.
Tim Cerio, leader of Citizens Property Insurance Corp., at a gathering of state and insurance industry leaders, alluded to a future in which a new asphalt shingle roof is looked upon as less-than-ideal in the calculus of each homeowner’s premium.
“It’s probably time to look past asphalt shingles,” Cerio said, noting at last month’s Florida Chamber of Commerce 2024 Insurance Summit that asphalt shingles often do not last 30 years, as manufacturers claim. “Asphalt shingles are … Maybe it’s time to start writing them out of the plot in Florida.”
Cerio could not be reached for further comment to discuss what he meant when he referenced the “evolving space” for covering Florida homes, be it by ceramic tile, asphalt shingles or financial fortification. But if state officials’ and elected leaders’ chatter is any indication, the focus for shoring up the state’s wobbly insurance industry in the coming year is on increasing structures’ storm resistance, not regulating market conditions that have made Floridians No. 1 in highest-average property insurance premiums in the country.
To that aim, the Legislature is likely to be asked to allocate a fresh infusion of cash for the program that incentivizes Floridians to stormproof their homes, according to the Department of Financial Services. Also, the powerful chairman of the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee, Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, said he’ll introduce legislation that proposes to freeze the property taxes of those who build homes out of the storm surges’ reach.
Even in the wake of hurricanes Helene and Milton, which produced scenes awash in flooding and destruction, the homes built to codes adopted after Hurricane Andrew fared better, Ingoglia points out. There were also live demonstrations of buildings that resisted Mother Nature’s destructive power entirely. Just 12 miles north of Siesta Key by boat, where Milton made landfall, a new development in the village of Cortez, on the southern end of Anna Maria Island, escaped with the lights still on, according to reports.
Ingoglia said he'd like to see more of that.
“The fundamental problem that we have is: How do we replace or upgrade old building stock to current standards?” Ingoglia said. “That is a question I think the Legislature needs to answer.”
The state Office of Insurance Regulation has said they have no plans to propose any new changes to rules governing the insurance market directly.
The effects of changing the state's tort laws, which in 2022 vastly took away many incentives for the insured to drag their insurer into court over settlement disputes, is still working its way out, state officials said at the same insurance summit last month.
Longer term, and with wider potential impact, it looks as though Cerio’s uncertainty about the future of asphalt shingle roofing in Florida is a growing concern for existing housing built even after Hurricane Andrew’s building codes went into effect.
The Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) was founded by the property-casualty industry to look at best construction practices. It has concluded that asphalt shingles are failing American homeowners, and their durability has not advanced.
It’s because consumers don’t know how to be more discriminating in choosing roof materials, and insurers are footing the roofing bill 30% of the time, according to the nonprofit’s Strategy 2026.
Those observations are coming out of IBHS research, which is the result of experiments in the world’s only lab created to simulate high winds against full-scale housing construction, according to IBHS’s materials.
“IBHS will evaluate the relative wind performance across roof systems both for residential and commercial construction, forming the basis for a series of ‘Roofing Roadmaps’ that provide guidance on the best and worst performing roof systems over their lifetime,” says the organization’s “Strategy 2026: Turning Science Into Solutions” publication.
People in the construction industry may beg to differ on the efficacy of asphalt shingles, however. Billy Venhuizen, general manager of Hermitage Roofing, based in Mangonia Park, said he’s been stunned by the roofs that insurance companies have refused to insure. He’s seen insurers force homeowners to get new roofs based on their existing one’s chronological age, even if there are no visible signs that the shingles need replacing.
“We were shocked at the roofs they (insurance companies) told people they had to replace,” he said, noting that his experience installing roofs in Virginia was notably different. “It’s hard on people. Not everyone can afford a $23,000 new roof.”
Switching to other roofing materials, either ceramic tile or metal, would not likely improve the state’s affordability housing problems, he noted.
“Concrete (ceramic) tile is 50% more (than asphalt shingles) and metal tile is even more — about 65% more,” Venhuizen said.
More Florida funding for home improvements planned
Meanwhile, the state Legislature is likely to be asked to appropriate more money for My Safe Florida Home, which has already subsidized thousands of new asphalt shingle roofs. In that program, the state will match every dollar that homeowners spend with $2 for specific home-hardening projects that also include hurricane-impact glass installation and new garage doors, should a state home inspection prove the need for it.
The Department of Financial Services said in October that Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis would seek to make My Safe Florida Home a permanent part of the budget. No change in that course has been announced since Patronis resigned his post to run for the congressional seat that former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R- Niceville, vacated.
According to the latest news release, Patronis’s office plans to ask for $480 million to continue hardening Florida homes against hurricane damage. That would almost double the $587 million in grant funding that’s been doled out since the program was revived in 2022.
The credits that homeowners realized because of these state-boosted upgrades have meant an average of $1,000 a year in savings on premiums for each participating homeowner, according to the Department of Financial Services.
Florida senator wants incentives for people to build higher off ground
Roofing company employees at work at a home in Broward County December 22, 2024 in Margate.
Roofing company employees at work at a home in Broward County December 22, 2024 in Margate.© ANNE GEGGIS/THE PALM BEACH POST
Ingoglia, the state senator, says he’d vote for more My Safe Florida Home funding and also go further, adding incentives for homeowners to build higher, especially if they are rebuilding after a storm.
“A lot of the damage is done to older homes that are built at ground level in these flood-prone areas. And that is something where we need some big ideas,” Ingoglia said. “And I think that freezing property taxes for 15 to 20 years, which would probably result in anywhere between a $30,000 to $50,000 property tax savings would be helpful.”
Anne Geggis is the insurance reporter at The Palm Beach Post, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach her at ageggis@gannett.com. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Asphalt tiles, popular roofing material, may need to go in Florida, Citizens Insurance exec says
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