Mounting on tile is a different job
Ask directly what your roof covering is and what mounting method the installer proposes for it. Tile, shingle and flat roofs are attached differently, and an installer whose experience is entirely on one is not automatically the right choice for another.
Ask how penetrations are flashed and sealed on your specific covering, and what method the roofing manufacturer approves. Tile work also involves breakage and replacement during installation, so ask who is responsible for replacing broken tiles and whether matching tiles are available.
Because Broward is inside the High Velocity Hurricane Zone as defined by the Florida Building Code, ask whether the proposed racking, clamps, flashing and fasteners carry a current Miami-Dade Notice of Acceptance or a statewide Florida Product Approval with HVHZ certification. Ask for the approval numbers.
Ask what the 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 typically appear a few years in.
Settle the roof before the array
Panels outlast most roof coverings. If yours is within a few years of the end of its life, replace it before the array goes on, because removing and reinstalling a system to reach the roof underneath is a cost with no offsetting benefit at all.
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. A roofer has no stake in the array going up this month.
If the roof has been replaced after a storm claim, ask how many layers are present, what the current warranty position is, and whether the manufacturer has an approved mounting approach for it. Establish that before work begins rather than during a future claim.
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.
How the system earns, and the annual true-up
Florida investor-owned utilities offer full retail net metering under Rule 25-6.065: excess solar is credited at the retail rate and rolled forward monthly, 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.
The true-up is the detail that changes design decisions. A surplus that survives to the end of the year is settled at the lower rate, so building deliberately large to bank credit gives value away once a year.
Ask what percentage of your annual usage the proposed system covers and how the true-up was handled in the projection. Ask for it to be built from your last twelve months of bills rather than a generic household 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 the rule.
Your association cannot say no, and what the federal change means
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 or other renewable energy devices from being installed. 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 retains one specific power: it may determine where on the roof collectors are installed, within an orientation to the south or within 45 degrees east or west of due south, and only if that determination does not impair their effective operation. A proposed relocation that costs meaningful production is therefore worth challenging with a production model rather than an argument.
Apply through the normal process even so. Submitting layout, mounting method, panel and frame colour and conduit routing removes most of the uncertainty a committee is reacting to, and a complete application is approved far more often than one that arrives as a dispute.
On the federal side, the 30 percent Residential Clean Energy Credit under Section 25D expired for property placed in service after December 31, 2025, so a cash or loan purchase now receives no federal credit. Section 48E survives at 30 percent for third-party owners under leases and power purchase agreements, so ask any such provider what they claim and what of that value reaches you, and confirm with a tax advisor.