5 Things to Check Before Signing a Roofing Contract | Bigfoot Windows & Roofing

The Risk

Why South Florida Homeowners Get Burned on Roofing Contracts

A low bid is not a safe bid — especially in the HVHZ.

Every hurricane season, Miami-Dade and Broward County homeowners discover the hard way that a cheap roofing quote came with no permit, unlicensed labor, or materials that failed the Florida Building Code’s High Velocity Hurricane Zone (HVHZ) requirements. By then, the contractor is gone, the roof leaks, and the homeowner is holding a lien from a supplier who was never paid.

The good news: most of these situations are preventable. The contract you sign before a single shingle is touched is your primary legal protection. This guide walks through the five things that matter most.

South Florida Context

Why Roofing Contracts Are More Complex Here Than Anywhere Else in the U.S.

Miami-Dade and Broward County operate under the HVHZ — the strictest residential building code in the continental United States. That means stricter product approval requirements, stricter installation standards, and stricter permitting than you would find even 50 miles north in Palm Beach County. A roofing contract written for a suburb of Atlanta will not protect you in Hialeah or Miramar.

The Florida Building Code Chapter 15 re-roofing thresholds for HVHZ specify when a damaged deck must be fully replaced rather than recovered. If your contract does not address deck replacement scope and pricing, you are exposed to open-ended change orders the day work starts. Local permit requirements, including the Miami-Dade Notice of Commencement, add another layer that many out-of-area contractors simply skip — creating lien exposure for the homeowner.

The Checklist

The 5 Things to Check Before You Sign

1. Verify the Contractor Holds an Active Florida DBPR License

Florida law requires any contractor replacing or repairing a roof to hold a state-issued license from the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR). The license must be active at the time of contract and permit application — not expired, not suspended.

How to verify: go to the DBPR license search portal at myfloridalicense.com and search the contractor’s name or license number. Look for a Certified Roofing Contractor (CCC) or Certified General Contractor (CGC) designation. A CGC license — like Bigfoot’s Certified General Contractor (CGC1531370) — also allows the contractor to handle structural scope such as hurricane strap upgrades or deck repairs without subcontracting that work to a separate party. Also confirm the contractor holds a Miami-Dade County Certificate of Competency if they are pulling permits locally — the county issues these separately from the state.

Red flag: any contractor who cannot provide a license number or who asks you to pull the permit yourself is signaling unlicensed activity.

2. Confirm the Contract Covers Permits and the Notice of Commencement

In Miami-Dade County, a roofing permit is required for virtually every replacement or substantial repair — no exceptions for routine tear-offs. Your contract must state explicitly that the contractor is responsible for pulling the permit before work begins.

Equally important: Florida law requires a Notice of Commencement (NOC) to be recorded at the county courthouse before any permitted work starts on an improvement worth $2,500 or more. The NOC protects you from mechanics’ liens filed by subcontractors or suppliers your roofer fails to pay. If your roofer does not address the NOC in the contract — or worse, asks you to waive it — walk away.

Ask to see the permit application number and confirm the NOC is part of the standard process before you sign. For multi-trade projects where roofing connects to structural work — like adding hurricane straps — having a single contractor authorized to pull all permits through a Certified General Contractor license reduces the coordination risk significantly.

3. Confirm Materials Carry Miami-Dade Product Approval for the HVHZ

Not all Florida-approved roofing products are approved for the High Velocity Hurricane Zone. HVHZ requires Miami-Dade Product Approval (or a current NOA — Notice of Acceptance) for every major system component: shingles, underlayment, clips, and fasteners.

Your contract should name the specific products being installed — not just a brand category. Ask for the product approval number for each component and verify it against the Miami-Dade product approval database. Knockoff clips or paused-approval materials that get installed without a current NOA can fail inspection, requiring a full redo at your expense.

4. Read the Warranty Language: Manufacturer vs. Workmanship

Most roofing contracts reference a manufacturer warranty — but that warranty only covers material defects, not installation errors. A manufacturer warranty passthrough is only as valuable as the installation beneath it. If the roofer installs shingles in a way that voids the manufacturer’s requirements, you get nothing from either party.

Your contract should include two separate warranty disclosures:

• Manufacturer warranty: the product’s defect coverage, its duration, and any actions that void it (wrong fastener pattern, incompatible accessories, missing accessories required for system coverage).
• Workmanship warranty: the contractor’s own coverage for installation defects — leak points, improper flashing, improper underlayment seams. This should be in writing with a clear duration. Bigfoot’s workmanship warranty on roofing installations is documented separately from manufacturer coverage.

For GAF shingle systems, the WindProven Limited Wind Warranty — which carries no maximum wind speed limitation for 15 years — requires installation with the four required GAF accessories. If your contract does not specify those accessories, the WindProven warranty is not available to you, regardless of what the salesperson said.

5. Check for Assignment-of-Benefits Clauses and Florida Statute 627.7152 Compliance

An assignment-of-benefits (AOB) clause in a roofing contract transfers your right to your insurance claim proceeds directly to the contractor. Florida Statute 627.7152, which significantly reformed AOB practices in Florida, imposes strict requirements on any contractor asking you to sign one: the contractor must provide a written notice of rights, you must have a rescission window, and the contract must comply with specific disclosure requirements.

Before signing any contract that includes an AOB or insurance direction-to-pay provision, read it carefully and — if you are uncertain — have an attorney or public adjuster review it. A reputable contractor will not pressure you to sign an AOB as a condition of starting work. You can learn more about roofing financing options that do not involve AOB clauses.

Contract Comparison

What a Strong Contract Covers vs. a Weak One

Because Bigfoot holds a Certified General Contractor (CGC1531370) license in addition to its Certified Roofing Contractor (CCC1333168) license, we can address structural scope — hurricane strap upgrades, deck structural repairs, or load-path corrections — under one contract and one permit pull. That means a homeowner dealing with storm damage that also affected the roof deck framing does not need to coordinate a second contractor or a second permit process. One scope, one point of accountability.

You can verify Bigfoot’s four active Florida licenses directly through the Florida DBPR license search at myfloridalicense.com. Florida licensed: CGC1531370 · CRC1331693 · CCC1333168 · SCC131153098.

Materials We Install

Roofing Systems We Use — and Why They Satisfy HVHZ Requirements

At Bigfoot, every roofing product we install is specified against its current Miami-Dade or Florida Product Approval before we write a proposal. Here is how our primary systems align with the HVHZ standards this article describes:

• GAF Timberline shingles with LayerLock Technology: eligible for the GAF WindProven Limited Wind Warranty (15-year, no maximum wind speed limit, no named-storm exclusion) when installed with the four required GAF accessories. Our contracts name each accessory explicitly.
• Englert standing seam metal panels: roll-formed on-site from 24-gauge C4 steel, installed with Englert-stamped clips carrying a current Miami-Dade NOA. We specify the NOA number on every proposal because the clip approval is what passes inspection — knockoff clips fail.
• Westlake tile systems: Saxony 900 flat concrete and Barcelona barrel are our most common tile installations in Miami-Dade and Broward. Poly-set foam installation reaches 180 mph wind resistance versus 160 mph for mechanical fasteners, and poly set also provides an attic insulation benefit.

If you want to compare local roofing options in Miami-Dade, understanding product approval requirements is the right starting point — not price alone.

Our Process

How Bigfoot Handles the Contract and Permit Process

Here is what the pre-construction sequence looks like when you work with us:

1. Free estimate and written proposal: We walk the roof, document current condition, and provide a written itemized proposal that names every product, every approval number, and every warranty term — manufacturer and workmanship.
2. Contract execution: Our contract clearly states that Bigfoot pulls the permit, that we coordinate the Notice of Commencement filing, and that no AOB is required from you.
3. Permit pull and NOC recording: We apply for the permit and confirm the NOC is recorded before any materials are delivered or work starts.
4. Installation and inspection: Work is performed to HVHZ code standards. The final inspection is county-issued, not a self-certification. We do not consider the job closed until the permit is signed off.

If you want to get an early sense of scope and cost before we meet, visit our South Florida roofing pricing guide to understand the ranges and cost drivers.

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Who We’re Not the Right Fit For

• Homeowners who need the lowest possible price above all else. Bigfoot’s pricing reflects licensed labor, HVHZ-compliant materials with current NOAs, and a permit-pulled process. If your primary goal is the cheapest bid, we are probably not your contractor — and neither is any contractor who can match an unusually low price on a code-compliant HVHZ job.
• Projects where the homeowner wants to pull their own permit. We do not support owner-builder arrangements on roofing jobs we are contracted to perform. Our process requires us to pull the permit as the licensed contractor of record.
• Homeowners seeking a contractor to work without permits in Miami-Dade or Broward. We do not perform unpermitted roofing work. Every installation we do is permitted, inspected, and closed out by the county.
• Projects that require only a cosmetic patch with no intention of code compliance. If the goal is to cover a leak temporarily without a permit or inspection, that is not a scope we accept — both for legal and liability reasons.