My Insurance Company Says I Have To Clean My Roof. Now What?

Before and after a soft wash roof cleaning on an asphalt shingle roof in Bourbonnais, IL.

The letter usually shows up out of nowhere. You have paid your premium on time for years, never filed a claim, and now there is an envelope telling you your roof has moss or algae and something has to happen before your policy renews. Sometimes there is a photo of your own house attached, taken from the air, that you never knew existed.

We get these calls constantly around Kankakee County and Will County, and the first thing worth saying is that most people who receive one of these letters are in far better shape than they think. Here is what the letter means and what to do about it.

Why Did My Insurance Company Send This Letter?

Because organic growth on a roof is a risk signal to an underwriter, and they have gotten far better at spotting it.

Carriers care about moss and algae for reasons that have nothing to do with how your house looks. Moss holds water against the shingle and lifts the edges, which is a leak waiting to happen. Algae feeds on the limestone filler in asphalt shingles and shortens their life. To an underwriter, a roof covered in growth reads as a roof heading toward a water damage claim, and water damage claims are expensive.

What changed recently is how they find out. Many carriers now review aerial and satellite imagery of insured properties instead of sending a person out. A north facing slope you have never once looked at can put you on a list. That is why so many of these letters surprise people who take good care of their homes.

Read The Letter Again. Which One Is It?

Before you do anything, figure out which of these you received, because the urgency is different for each.

• An inspection notice or maintenance request. The carrier flagged a condition and wants it addressed. No deadline has started running yet. This is the easiest one to resolve.
• A conditional renewal. They will renew you, but only if the roof is cleaned by a stated date, and they will usually want proof.
• A notice of nonrenewal. The carrier intends to end the policy at its expiration date. This one has legal requirements attached to it and specific rights that come with it.
• A cancellation notice. Different from a nonrenewal. Cancellation ends the policy before the expiration date, which is a more serious situation and worth calling your agent about immediately.

Write down the exact date on the letter and the exact language describing what they want done. Those two things drive everything that follows.

How Much Time Do I Actually Have?

More than the letter may make it feel like. The Illinois Department of Insurance publishes the rules carriers have to follow, and they are worth knowing.

For notice, the timeline depends on how long you have held the policy. If your homeowners policy has been in force less than five years, the company must mail the nonrenewal notice at least 30 days before the nonrenewal date. If the policy has been active for five years or more, the carrier may nonrenew for a limited set of reasons on 30 days written notice, or for nearly any reason on 60 days written notice. The notice also has to clearly state the specific reasons for nonrenewal rather than a vague label.

Here is the part most homeowners never hear about, and it matters enormously for a roof condition letter. If the company is nonrenewing your policy because the property condition has declined, it must allow you time to make the required repairs, up to 90 days. A roof cleaning is not a 90 day job. It is a one day job. That provision exists precisely so that a fixable maintenance issue does not cost you your coverage.

You also have an appeal path if you believe the carrier did not follow the rules. You can request a hearing with the Director of Insurance, in writing, at least 20 days before your policy expiration date, explaining why you believe the nonrenewal was improper.

Will Cleaning The Roof Actually Satisfy Them?

In most cases, yes, and this is the question worth answering before you spend a dollar.

If the letter describes moss, algae, black streaks, staining, discoloration, or organic growth, the carrier is describing something sitting on top of your shingles. A professional soft wash removes it and kills what caused it. The underlying roof was never the problem. To understand what the growth actually is and why it concentrated on one side of your house, read our breakdown of what causes dark spots on a roof.

Cleaning will not solve it if the letter describes any of these instead:

• Missing, cracked, or curling shingles
• Bald patches where the granules are worn away and the darker asphalt shows through
• Sagging or visible deck damage
• A roof past its stated age limit, since some carriers set an age cutoff regardless of condition

Those are roofing problems, not cleaning problems, and we will tell you so. If we look at your roof and a wash is not going to fix what the carrier flagged, you will hear that from us before we quote you anything. Selling someone a cleaning that does not save their policy helps nobody.

One warning worth repeating. Do not let anyone pressure wash the roof to meet a deadline. High pressure strips the granules that protect the shingle, shortens the roof's life, and voids most manufacturer warranties. Handing your carrier a roof that now has granule loss is a worse outcome than the algae was.

What To Send Your Carrier As Proof

This is where a lot of homeowners get tripped up. They get the roof cleaned, assume the matter is closed, and hear nothing until the nonrenewal goes through anyway. Clean the roof and then close the loop in writing.

Send your agent or the underwriter all three of these:

• Dated before and after photos of the slopes the carrier flagged, shot from a similar angle so the change is obvious.
• An itemized invoice from a licensed and insured company, with the service date and the address on it.
• A description of the method, stating that low pressure soft washing was used and that no high pressure touched the shingles. Underwriters care about this, and a plain invoice that just says roof cleaning does not tell them.

We document every roof we clean and provide all three as a matter of course, because these letters are common enough that we built the paperwork into the job. Ask for it up front so nothing gets lost.

Send it by email so you have a record, keep a copy for yourself, and follow up if you do not get written confirmation within a week.

What To Do This Week

1. Call your agent today. Ask exactly what condition was flagged, what will satisfy it, what form of proof they want, and what the real deadline is. Get the answer in writing if you can. This one call prevents most of the problems that follow.
2. Get the roof looked at. Confirm it is a cleaning issue and not a roofing issue before you build a plan around one or the other.
3. Schedule the cleaning early in the window, not at the end of it. Weather moves schedules, and you want room.
4. Document the day it happens. Photos, invoice, method.
5. Submit the proof and confirm receipt. Do not assume silence means approval.
6. Quote other carriers in parallel. Even if you expect to be reinstated, knowing your options removes the panic from the whole situation.

If you end up unable to find coverage anywhere, the Illinois FAIR Plan Association exists as a backstop, and the nonrenewal notice itself is required to tell you that you may be eligible for it. That is a last resort, not a first stop, but it is worth knowing the floor exists.

How To Keep This From Happening Again

Algae spores land on every roof in northern Illinois, so growth eventually returns. A soft wash typically buys three to five years, and shaded roofs regrow faster. Zinc or copper strips near the ridge slow it down, and trimming back branches that keep a slope damp helps more than most people expect.

The other thing that triggers these letters is a gutter problem, since backed up gutters keep the roof edge and fascia wet. If your carrier is already looking at your property from the air, a gutter cleaning and a house washing are worth doing in the same visit. Homeowners who would rather not think about it again put the property on a schedule through the Green Pro Clean Club, which keeps growth from ever getting back to the point an underwriter notices.

Where We Handle These Jobs

Green Pro Services does soft wash roof cleaning throughout Kankakee County, Will County, and the south suburbs of Cook County, including Bourbonnais, Bradley, Manteno, Frankfort, New Lenox, Mokena, Monee and Crete, Orland Park, and Olympia Fields.

If you have a letter in hand, tell us the date on it when you call. We schedule insurance deadline jobs ahead of routine work, because a routine cleaning can wait a week and your coverage cannot.