A newer roof is an asset and a constraint
If your covering was recently replaced, you are in a good position: panels outlast most roof coverings, and starting with a new one removes the risk of paying later to remove and reinstall an array so the roof underneath can be done.
Ask your installer how they handle roof warranties. What flashing and sealing method do they use, does the roofing manufacturer have an approved mounting approach for your covering, and will they confirm in writing that the installation is done to a standard that preserves the covering warranty.
Ask what their own workmanship warranty covers on roof penetrations specifically, for how long, and who honours it. Leaks around mounting hardware are the most common physical failure in residential solar and they usually appear a few years in.
It is worth a call to the roofing manufacturer or the roofer who did the work, particularly if the replacement is recent enough to still be within a warranty period. Five minutes establishing the position beforehand is much cheaper than establishing it during a claim.
And if the roof has not been replaced
Ask for a condition assessment rather than an age estimate, and consider getting it from a roofer rather than only from the company selling you solar. Sun, heat and storm exposure age a covering faster than the calendar suggests.
If the covering is within a few years of the end of its life, replace it before the array goes on. Removing and reinstalling a system to reach the roof underneath is a cost with no offsetting benefit at all, and it is entirely avoidable while you are still quoting.
Ask how many layers of covering are present and what the structure underneath is, and whether anything needs reinforcement to carry the array. An installer who has not been on the roof cannot answer those questions.
If the roof does need work, coordinating both jobs is usually cheaper and less disruptive than doing them years apart. Ask the roofer and the installer to speak to each other about sequencing and hardware.
Your insurer, and how the system earns
Talk to your home insurer before installation. Ask whether a rooftop array is covered under your policy, whether it changes your premium or your deductible, and what documentation they want on file afterwards. Wind and hurricane deductibles are frequently a percentage of insured value rather than a flat amount.
On the utility side, Florida investor-owned utilities credit excess solar at the retail rate and roll it forward monthly under Rule 25-6.065, with an annual true-up at the utility's lower avoided-cost rate.
Systems are generally sized to no more than 115 percent of annual usage, so ask what percentage of your usage the proposed system covers and ask for the design to be built from your last twelve months of bills rather than a generic profile.
Confirm which utility serves your address, since municipal electric utilities and rural electric cooperatives in Florida set their own net metering policies and credit rates and are not bound by the substantive parts of that rule.
Your association cannot say no, and the annual true-up to plan for
Florida Statute 163.04 provides that a deed restriction, covenant, declaration or similar binding agreement may not prohibit or have the effect of prohibiting solar collectors from being installed, and that a property owner may not be denied permission by any entity granted the power to approve, forbid, control or direct alteration of property.
An association keeps one power: it may determine where on the roof collectors go, within an orientation to the south or within 45 degrees east or west of due south, and only if that does not impair their effective operation. If a proposed relocation would cost meaningful production, ask your installer to model both placements and put the difference in writing.
On the utility side, Florida investor-owned utilities credit excess solar at the retail rate and roll it forward monthly under Rule 25-6.065, with an annual true-up at the utility's lower avoided-cost rate, and systems are generally sized to no more than 115 percent of annual usage. Building deliberately large to bank credit gives value away once a year.
Confirm which utility serves your address before applying any of that, since municipal electric utilities and rural electric cooperatives set their own net metering policies and credit rates. And note that the 30 percent Residential Clean Energy Credit under Section 25D expired for property placed in service after December 31, 2025, so a purchase now receives no federal credit.