Texas Says It Plainly: Roof Age Alone Can’t Sink a Homeowners Policy

Texas regulators just put it in plainer English: an insurer can’t turn down or nonrenew a homeowners policy simply because the house — or the roof — is old. The Texas Department of Insurance announced on Sept. 29, 2026 that it is clarifying its rule so that carriers may base decisions on the physical condition of a home and its components, but not on age alone.

That puts condition — the thing roofers actually inspect and document — at the center of the coverage conversation. TDI listed roofing alongside wiring, heating, air conditioning, plumbing and siding as components carriers can evaluate by condition. “Texans deserve fair access to home insurance, no matter the age of their home,” Insurance Commissioner Amanda Crawford said in the release.

What actually changes

According to a Sept. 30 analysis on the InsureReinsure law blog, TDI published a proposed amendment to 28 Tex. Admin. Code § 21.1006 on Sept. 29. TDI calls the changes clarifying, saying they “do not change the rule’s meaning or application.” The existing rule already barred declinations based solely on a property’s age or value. The amendments:

• Rewrite subsection (b) so it contains only the age prohibition, and move the list of example components into a new paragraph relabeled “components or materials.”
• Add siding to that list, which already included wiring, heating, air conditioning, plumbing and roofing.
• Consolidate the carve-outs into a new subsection (d), which reaffirms that insurers can still decline based on “the physical condition of the property or any of the property’s individual components or materials.”
• Keep the minimum-value prohibition in subsection (c) “essentially the same.”

TDI says the restructuring reinforces that the age ban covers both the age of the property and the age of a component — the roof included.

Why it’s showing up now

The agency tied the rule to Gov. Greg Abbott’s directive to support Texas homeowners, including prohibiting carriers from rejecting policies based solely on the age of a house or its components. KPRC Click2Houston’s Sept. 29 report framed it the same way: an older roof can still be judged on condition, but age by itself can’t be the reason.

The InsureReinsure write-up lists other TDI moves under the same directive: Bulletin B-0007-26, calling price optimization in ratemaking unfairly discriminatory; a new ZIP-code-level transparency tool on why homeowners coverage gets declined; and Bulletin B-0008-26, encouraging insurers to offer premium discounts for homes built to storm-resistant standards.

The fine print for roofers

This is not a free pass for tired roofs. Carriers keep full room to decline on condition, so a 20-year-old roof with lifted tabs, granule loss or rotten decking is still fair game. What changes is the conversation: when an underwriter’s only stated reason is the install year, homeowners have TDI’s language to point to — and your condition-based inspection is the evidence. That’s the same documentation discipline we covered in what adjusters look for in hail documentation.

It also fits a broader trend of state regulators getting more involved in roof claims, from attorneys general reshaping hail claims and storm contracts to Oklahoma’s attorney general suing over hail claims. Texas contractors who sell retail reroofs should expect more homeowners asking whether their roof is “too old to insure.” The honest answer under this rule: age alone shouldn’t decide it — condition does.

Homeowners with questions can reach the TDI Help Line at 800-252-3439.

Sources

Texas Department of Insurance, Sept. 29, 2026. InsureReinsure, Sept. 30, 2026. KPRC Click2Houston, Sept. 29, 2026.