Today, yes. A Texas insurer can decline to write or refuse to renew a residential property policy because the roof has aged past the carrier’s underwriting threshold. That is a common practice, and it is currently legal.
The Governor has moved to end it. On August 24, 2026, Greg Abbott issued a formal directive to Insurance Commissioner Amanda Crawford instructing the Texas Department of Insurance to prohibit insurers from refusing to write or renew residential property policies based on the age of the property — “including individual components such as the age of the roof” — and to require insurers to include a home’s FORTIFIED roof status in their rate-setting calculations.
Read that sentence carefully, because the gap between it and your renewal notice is the whole subject of this article.
Is the roof-age ban in effect?
No. What exists is a directive from the Governor to a state agency. It is not a statute, and it is not an adopted rule.
The directive instructs TDI to act under its existing authority — Insurance Code §31.002 on promoting a stable market and protecting policyholders, and Chapters 544 and 2251 on unfair discrimination and rate standards. For a prohibition on age-based underwriting to bind a carrier, TDI has to do something with that instruction: issue a bulletin, propose and adopt a rule through notice and comment, or bring enforcement. As of this writing, no implementing rule or bulletin on roof age has been issued.
The near-term milestone to watch is September 14, 2026, when TDI’s recommendations back to the Governor’s Office are due. Recommendations are still not rules. If TDI proceeds by rulemaking, expect a proposal, a comment period, and an adoption order — a process usually measured in months.
None of which helps you if a non-renewal notice arrived last week. So here is what actually governs that notice.
What are my rights on a non-renewal right now?
Texas gives you notice and time, not a right to keep the policy.
Under Insurance Code §551.105, unless the insurer has mailed written notice of non-renewal to you no later than the 60th day before the policy expires, the insurer must renew the policy at your request. That runs to homes, dwellings, duplexes, apartments, personal autos, and other real or personal property. The practical value of the rule is the calendar: sixty days is enough time to remarket the policy properly instead of taking whatever is available in the final week.
Two things to do the day the notice arrives:
Check the postmark against your expiration date. If notice came later than the 60th day, you can request renewal. Carriers do miss this deadline.
Read the stated reason. Non-renewal notices state a reason, and the reason is often more specific than “age of roof” — deferred maintenance, granule loss, prior claims, an inspection photograph showing lifted shingles. The stated reason determines whether the problem is fixable.
What does a roof inspection finding actually do?
Carriers order exterior inspections, increasingly by aerial imagery, and route the results into underwriting rules. Common outcomes:
- Non-renewal where the roof is past a hard age limit or the imagery shows damage.
- Continued coverage on an actual cash value roof schedule, where a covered roof loss is paid depreciated rather than at replacement cost. This is the quiet one. The policy renews, the premium may barely move, and your recovery after the next hailstorm drops by thousands. The difference is explained in RCV vs. ACV Roof Coverage.
- Conditional renewal requiring repair or replacement within a set window, with proof.
If the finding is wrong — and imagery-based findings sometimes are — the remedy is documentation, not argument. A dated roofing contractor’s report with photographs, the original installation invoice, and permit records will get a file reopened far more often than a phone call will.
Does a new roof lower my premium?
It can, and the mechanism is worth understanding because the directive points at it.
Texas has had an impact-resistant roofing credit structure for years. TDI’s page on products qualifying for impact-resistant roofing credits explains the framework: materials are tested to a recognized standard and classified Class 1 through Class 4 under UL Standard 2218, with Class 4 receiving the highest premium credit. But — and this is the part people get wrong — the amount of the discount is set by each insurance company individually. There is no statutory percentage. Each carrier also decides which test criteria it accepts, how materials must be labeled, and what paperwork it requires. After installation, the contractor completes TDI form PC068, the Impact-Resistant Roofing Installation Form.
If you have been told Texas law mandates a specific Class 4 discount, that is a widely repeated error. It does not.
FORTIFIED is a different and more demanding standard, developed by the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety, covering the roof deck attachment, sealed roof deck, edge metal, and installation verification by an evaluator — not just the shingle. Abbott’s directive would make FORTIFIED status a mandatory input in rating. Today, whether it earns you a credit still depends on the carrier’s filed rating plan.
What should I do if my roof is 15 years old or older?
Five things, in order of return:
Find out what your policy says about roof settlement today. Look for an actual cash value roof endorsement, a roof surfacing payment schedule, or a cosmetic damage exclusion. This determines what a hail claim pays you and it is frequently added at renewal without discussion.
Document the roof’s condition and age now, while nothing has happened. Installation invoice, permit, and dated photographs from ground level at each elevation. This file is worth more than any argument you can make later, both to an underwriter and to a claims adjuster.
Do not file a small claim on an aging roof without doing the math. With a percentage wind and hail deductible on a $400,000 dwelling limit, a 2% deductible is $8,000 before the policy pays anything — often more than the repair. And a claim in the record affects future eligibility. The calculation is in What Is a Wind and Hail Deductible in Texas?
Remarket before the notice, not after. Carrier appetite on roof age varies widely — different age limits, different treatment of a repaired roof, different willingness to write a 20-year composition roof in a hail-exposed county. This is the single largest practical advantage of an independent agency: we can test the same house across multiple markets in one sitting rather than accepting one carrier’s underwriting rule as the market’s answer.
If you are replacing anyway, price the upgrade against the credit. Ask your contractor for a Class 4 quote and a FORTIFIED-eligible quote alongside the standard one, then let us check what your carrier’s filed plan actually credits for each. Sometimes the upgrade pays back in premium and deductible exposure. Sometimes it does not. It depends on the carrier, and it is a question with a real answer.
The honest summary
Roof age remains a legitimate underwriting factor in Texas today, and it will remain one until TDI turns the Governor’s August 24 directive into a bulletin or an adopted rule. If you have a notice in hand, your leverage is the 60-day rule in §551.105, the specific stated reason, and the availability of other markets — not the directive.
Bring us the notice and your current declarations page and we will tell you which of the three you actually have. Start with a home insurance review or send it through the client center. Sixty days is enough time to fix this properly. Two weeks usually is not.
