What a roof certification records

A LeakFREE® Roof Certification records that a specific roof, at a specific address, on a specific date, met the published LeakFREE® criteria. That is the whole of it, and the precision is the point. A roof certification is a dated condition record, backed by an inspection performed to a written standard and documented well enough that someone else can check the work.

It is issued by the accredited individual who performed the inspection, never by a business entity, and it is generated and registered through InspectionPLUS®. A certificate produced outside that platform is not valid.

The report comes before the certificate

Before any certificate exists, there is a LeakFREE® Roof Inspection Report. It is the deliverable from a LeakFREE® Check, the five-zone inspection covering the interior, the attic, the exterior, the perimeter and the rooftop.

The report sets out four things:

• A defined scope. What was inspected, and what was not. Ambiguity here is what turns a disagreement into a dispute two years later.
• Findings with photographs. Each item located and pictured, so a reader who was never on the roof can follow it.
• Certification eligibility. Whether the roof meets the criteria now, could meet them after specific work, or does not.
• Recommendations and a transparent proposal. What needs doing, where, and why.

Property owners, insurers, lenders and attorneys all end up reading these documents. A report written so that a homeowner and an attorney reach the same understanding on one read is doing its job.

What a roof certification does not do

It is not insurance. It is not a service contract. It does not promise that the roof will never leak, and any document that says otherwise is describing something else.

A roof is a system exposed to weather, and weather is not predictable. What a certification does is establish, on the record, the condition of that system on a known date, assessed against criteria that were published before the inspector arrived. That record is what holds up in a negotiation, a claim or a courtroom.

How long the term runs

The term is set by the findings, the slope, the materials and the condition of the roof. The maximum is ten years. The expiration is printed on the certificate as a date, and the term is never extended to help close a sale.

One trigger to know about: if repairs are performed by anyone other than an NRCIA member, a re-inspection is required. The certificate reflects a documented condition, so work performed outside that documentation has to be assessed before the record can stand.

Who can issue one

There is no federal license for roof inspectors in the United States. Nothing stops anyone from calling themselves one. NRCIA has set the standard for roof inspection and certification since 1995, and we train and accredit the members who perform the inspections and issue the certifications.

LeakFREE® is our federally registered trademark. Only NRCIA members can issue a LeakFREE® certification.

When a roof certification is worth having

The document earns its keep whenever someone else needs to trust the condition of a roof they cannot see:

• Selling. A pre-listing report removes the roof from the negotiation, or prices it accurately before an offer is on the table.
• Buying. A general home inspection reviews the roof at a glance. A LeakFREE® Check works to a different scope and a different depth.
• Portfolios and HOAs. A dated condition record across many buildings turns deferred maintenance into a schedule.
• Claims and disputes. Condition before an event is the hardest thing to prove after one. A dated report proves it.

Across 6,460 member inspections nationwide, more than 66 percent of roofs either qualified for a LeakFREE® certification or could be repaired to qualify. Most roofs come back better than the owner expected, and the ones that do not come back with a specific list.

Getting one

Schedule a LeakFREE® Check with an accredited member. Read the report before anything else. If the roof meets the criteria, the member who performed the inspection issues the certification.

Find an accredited NRCIA inspector near you.

LeakFREE®, Forensic ROOF®, Mr. RoofCheck®, InspectionPLUS®, Today’s Inspection… Tomorrow’s Protection®, and Got Leaks?® are registered trademarks of Field Gate FLP, used by permission. RoofGUARD™, ForensicGUARD™, DisasterGUARD™, E3GUARD™, and Think Like a Raindrop™ are trademarks of Field Gate FLP.