A brown ring shows up on the bedroom ceiling of a third-floor condo in Ormond Beach. The owner calls a roofer. The roofer asks one question that stops the conversation cold: “Do you own the roof?”
In a single-family home that question is absurd. In a condominium or a townhome it is the whole ballgame. Florida treats these two forms of ownership very differently, and the difference decides who calls the contractor, who signs the contract, who pays the bill, and whose insurance policy is on the hook for the drywall.
Here is how it actually works in Volusia County — and what to do next depending on which side of the line you land on.
Condominium: The Roof Is a Common Element
If you own a condominium, you own the airspace inside your unit and an undivided share of everything else. In virtually every Florida condominium declaration, the roof is part of the common elements — along with the exterior walls, the structural slab, the stairwells and the parking lot.
Chapter 718 of the Florida Statutes (the Condominium Act) is direct about what that means. Under §718.113(1), maintenance of the common elements is the responsibility of the association. Not the owner on the top floor. Not the owner whose ceiling is stained. The association, funded by every owner in the building through assessments.
That has three practical consequences:
- You cannot hire your own roofer for the building roof. Even if you are willing to pay, the association controls the common elements. A contractor who reroofs a condo building on a single owner’s signature has a contract problem, not just an awkward phone call.
- The board decides timing, scope and material. Owners get a vote through the board and, for some expenditures, a direct vote — but not a unilateral one.
- Everybody pays, including owners on the ground floor. A roof is a shared building system. Ground-floor owners fund it the same as penthouse owners, in the share set by the declaration.
What About the Damage Inside My Unit?
This is where owners get blindsided. The roof and the interior finishes are usually covered by two different policies.
Under §718.111(11), the association’s master property policy covers the condominium property essentially as originally installed — the structure, the roof, the building envelope. It specifically excludes items that are the unit owner’s responsibility to insure: floor, wall and ceiling coverings, electrical fixtures, appliances, water heaters, built-in cabinets and countertops, and window treatments.
So when a roof leak stains a ceiling and ruins the carpet below it:
- The association repairs the roof and the building structure.
- Your HO-6 unit owner policy is generally what puts your ceiling texture, paint and flooring back.
Owners who dropped their HO-6 because “the association insures the building” find this out at the worst possible moment. If you own a Florida condo, carry the HO-6.
Townhome: Read Your Declaration, Because the Statute Won’t Save You
A townhome looks like a condo from the street and is legally nothing like one. Most Volusia County townhomes are fee-simple homes on their own platted lots, governed by a homeowners association under Chapter 720 — not Chapter 718.
Chapter 720 contains no equivalent of §718.113. There is no default statutory rule handing the roof to the association. Responsibility comes from one place only: the declaration of covenants recorded against your lot.
In practice we see three patterns across Volusia County townhome communities:
- Association maintains and replaces the roofs. Common in newer, well-run communities. Dues are higher because a roof reserve is baked in. The association bids the whole building or the whole community at once.
- Owner is fully responsible for their own roof section. Also common, especially in older communities. You hire the contractor and you pay — but the association almost always controls approval of color, profile and material through architectural review, so the whole building still matches.
- A split. The association handles the roof surface; the owner handles what’s attached to their unit — skylights, vents, sometimes gutters and soffit and fascia. This one causes the most disputes, because the leak is always at the seam between the two.
Before you do anything else, pull your declaration and read the maintenance article and the insurance article. If the language is ambiguous — and it often is in documents drafted in the 1980s — get an opinion from an association attorney before money moves. That is cheaper than litigating it after the tear-off.
How Condo Roofs Actually Get Paid For
A roof on a mid-rise beachside building is a six-figure project. It gets funded one of three ways, and the last one is the one everybody dreads.
1. Reserves
Florida condominium budgets must include reserve accounts for roof replacement, among other major components. For buildings three stories or taller, associations must also complete a Structural Integrity Reserve Study (SIRS) at least every 10 years, identifying the roof and other structural components and the money needed to replace them.
The important change: reserves for the items in a SIRS can no longer be waived or reduced by a membership vote the way they were for decades. Boards that used to vote down reserves every December to keep dues flat no longer have that option for the roof. Dues went up statewide because of it — but so did the odds that the money is there when the roof is due.
2. Milestone Inspections
Buildings three stories or taller must undergo a milestone structural inspection at 30 years from the certificate of occupancy, recurring every 10 years after (local jurisdictions can require it earlier for coastal buildings, so check with your city or county building department). Roof condition and water intrusion routinely turn up in these reports, and a milestone finding is often the event that finally moves a stalled reroof onto the calendar.
3. Special Assessment
When reserves fall short — because the roof failed early, because a storm accelerated it, or because reserves were waived for years under the old rules — the shortfall is billed to owners as a special assessment. A $600,000 reroof across 40 units is $15,000 per owner, due on the board’s schedule, whether or not you were planning on it.
Which is the honest argument for maintaining the roof you have. Deferred maintenance on a condo roof is not free; it just moves the bill from the reserve line to your mailbox, with interest.
Why Volusia County Buildings Are Harder Than Most
Coastal Volusia has an aging multifamily stock — a lot of it built in the 1970s and 1980s from Ormond Beach down through Daytona Beach Shores, Wilbur-by-the-Sea and New Smyrna Beach. Those buildings face conditions that shorten roof life everywhere in Florida and shorten it faster within a mile of the Atlantic:
- Salt-laden air that corrodes fasteners, flashing and rooftop equipment curbs.
- Low-slope and flat sections — walkways, breezeways, mechanical decks — that need TPO, EPDM or modified bitumen rather than shingles, and that fail long before the sloped sections do.
- Wind exposure that puts perimeter and corner uplift zones under loads a typical inland home never sees.
- Occupied buildings. Nobody moves out for a reroof. Staging, parking, noise hours, elevator use and resident notification are part of the job, not an afterthought.
What a Board Should Require in a Roofing Bid
If you sit on a board or a building committee, the bid package matters more than the bid number. Ask every contractor for:
- Both licenses, verified. A roofing license (CCC) covers the roof; a general contractor license (CGC) covers structural work you may hit once the deck is exposed. Verify them at MyFloridaLicense.com, not on a business card.
- Certificate of insurance naming the association as additional insured — general liability and workers’ compensation, sent directly from the carrier.
- Permit responsibility in writing. The contractor pulls the permit, not the association, and not an owner.
- A clear position on the 25% rule. Repairs above that threshold within 12 months can trigger code-compliance obligations for the whole roof section. Know before you patch.
- A decking and fastener allowance with a per-sheet price. Nobody knows what is under a 40-year-old roof until it is open.
- A wind mitigation report at completion. The association’s master policy is rated on the same features a single-family policy is, and documented upgrades can move the premium for every owner in the building.
- Line-item scope, not a lump sum. Three lump-sum bids cannot be compared. Line items can.
What an Individual Owner Can Do
If you own a condo unit and you think the roof is failing, you are not powerless — you are just working through the board instead of around it:
- Document it. Photos, dates, a moisture reading if you can get one. Ceiling stains grow; take pictures over time.
- Notify the association in writing. Email or letter, not a hallway conversation. This starts the clock on the association’s maintenance obligation and creates the record.
- Open a claim on your HO-6 for the interior finishes if the damage is significant.
- Request the reserve study and the last inspection report. Owners have rights to association records. If the roof is at end of life with no funding behind it, that is worth knowing before the assessment lands.
- Bring a real bid to the board. Boards move faster when someone hands them a scope and a number instead of a complaint.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I replace just the roof section over my own condo unit?
No. The roof is a common element and is maintained as a whole by the association. Partial replacement over one unit is not typically permitted and would create warranty and flashing problems at the tie-in even if it were.
My townhome documents are silent about the roof. Who is responsible?
Ambiguity in the declaration is a legal question, not a roofing question. Have an association attorney review the maintenance and insurance articles together — they are frequently read against each other — before anyone signs a contract.
Does the association’s insurance pay for my ruined ceiling and floors?
Generally no. Under §718.111(11) the master policy excludes floor, wall and ceiling coverings and similar interior items, which are insured by the unit owner. That is what an HO-6 policy is for.
Can a special assessment be avoided if the roof was damaged in a storm?
Sometimes. If the loss is covered, the master policy may fund most of the replacement — but the association still owes the hurricane deductible, which on a multifamily building is often a percentage of the insured value and can itself become an assessment.
How long does a condo building reroof take?
It depends on square footage, roof access, and how many low-slope sections are involved. A small two-story building can run a week or two; a large mid-rise with multiple systems and staging constraints is measured in months. A good contractor gives the board a phased schedule with resident notification built in.
Do we need owner approval to replace the roof?
Ordinary maintenance and replacement of a common element is usually a board decision. Material changes or improvements — going from tile to metal, for instance — may require a membership vote depending on your declaration. Ask your association counsel before the bids go out, not after.
Talk to a Contractor Who Works With Boards
Affordable Roofing & Construction has served Volusia County for more than 20 years, and we work with condominium associations, HOAs and commercial property owners as well as single-family homeowners. We hold both a roofing license and a general contractor license (CCC 1327602 and CGC 1509441), we are CertainTeed ShingleMaster credentialed with dual Master Craftsman certifications, and every roof we install includes a wind mitigation inspection and a 5-year labor warranty.
We serve Daytona Beach, Port Orange, New Smyrna Beach, Ormond Beach, DeLand, Deltona, Edgewater, South Daytona, Holly Hill, Orange City and the surrounding Central Florida area.
Board members and property managers: we provide free inspections and line-item bid packages you can put side by side with anyone else’s. Call 386-392-8952 or request a free estimate online.
This article is general information about Florida roofing practice, not legal advice. Association governing documents control, and they vary. Consult an association attorney for questions about your declaration.
Affordable Roofing & Construction — Licensed & Insured | CCC 1327602 | CGC 1509441 | Serving Volusia County for over 20 years