A Rental House Roof Inspection Needs Two Readers

If you own a house in St. Louis that someone else lives in, the roof report you order is usually read by one person, the owner, and filed away. The tenant is the one who sees the stain on the bedroom ceiling first. A useful roof inspection serves both of them, and it helps to settle before the ladder goes up who will receive the written findings, who will be told about the photographs, and who gets the call when a leak shows.

Who the report is for

A rental roof inspection has two readers. The owner needs to know the condition of the shingles, the flashing, the vents and the attic decking so they can plan a repair or a replacement. The tenant, if they are told about the inspection at all, needs to know that someone will be on the roof, which door or gate they will use, and whether any part of the attic will be entered while the unit is occupied. Those are different questions, and a single report rarely answers both of them well.

Ask for the report to be addressed to the property owner by name, with the property address and the date of the walk printed on the first page. Ask for the photographs to come as separate files rather than pasted into a document, so the owner can keep them with the lease file and send them on without reformatting. The report should say which slopes were walked on foot and which were only viewed from the ground, because a slope seen from the yard is not the same record as a slope a person stood on.

What to check before the inspector arrives

Walk the yard with a phone and take a few photographs yourself. Stand at each corner of the house and take wide pictures of each roof slope, then close shots of any stain on the soffit, the fascia, or the top of the siding below the eave. A dated set of your own photographs is useful if a tenant reports a leak later, because it shows the condition of the exterior before anyone entered the attic and before any repair was made.

Check whether the gutters are running clear. A gutter that backs up in a heavy rain can push water under the first course of shingles at the eave, and a tenant may describe that as a roof leak when the cause is a clogged downspout or a sagging run. Note any downspout that empties against the foundation or onto a walk, because the staining it leaves often looks like a roof problem from inside the house when it is really a drainage problem at the wall.

Look in the bathrooms and above the kitchen range for fan ducts that vent into the attic instead of through the roof. A bath fan that ends in the attic can soak the decking over a St. Louis winter, and the stain may only show in spring. The inspector will find the damp spot only if they know to look for it, so mention the fans when you book and ask that the attic be checked directly above each one.

Access: what the tenant is owed

Most leases give the owner a right to enter for an inspection, but the notice period and the time of day are set by the lease and by Missouri landlord rules, not by the roofing company. Send the tenant written notice with the date, the expected arrival window and the name of the company coming to the house. Say whether the inspector will need the attic hatch, which is often inside a closet or behind a stored item, and ask the tenant to clear the path to it.

If the inspection involves climbing the roof, the roofer should walk it with the tenant's knowledge. A ladder set against the eave can cross a patio, a driveway or a side yard, and a car parked in the path can change where the ladder has to go. Ask the company where the ladder will be set, who will hold it, and whether anyone will need to move a vehicle or a grill before the crew arrives. A written answer to those three questions prevents most of the arguments that start on the morning of the walk.

Tenants also deserve to know what will be photographed and where those photographs will go. If the inspector takes pictures inside a bedroom or a closet to reach the attic hatch, the tenant should hear that before the visit, not after. Keep the tenant's own belongings out of the frame and ask the inspector to limit photographs inside the unit to the attic access and any stain they are documenting.

What the written report should contain

• The address, the date, and the name of the person who walked each slope.
• Each slope described separately, with the shingle condition, any lifted or missing tabs, and any cracked or split shingles noted by location on that slope.
• Every penetration counted, including plumbing vent boots, bath fan caps, chimney flashing, any satellite or antenna mounts, and any skylight.
• Attic findings, including staining on the decking, damp or compressed insulation, and any light visible through the boards where a nail or a gap should not be.
• A list of photographs by number, with the slope or area each one shows, so the owner can match a picture to a line in the report.
• A plain statement of what could not be seen and why, such as a slope that was only viewed from the ground or an attic bay that was blocked by stored items.

The report should land in the owner's hands as a written document, not as a verbal summary given at the curb. Keys Roofing documents damage and puts a written scope with photographs and measurements in the homeowner's hands. If a storm claim follows an inspection, the owner deals with their own insurer, because Missouri law (RSMo 407.725) bars a roofing contractor from representing or negotiating a homeowner's insurance claim, and a roofer may not say anything about paying, waiving or covering a deductible. A rental owner with a claim should keep the inspection file and make the calls personally.

When a tenant reports a leak during the inspection window

Sometimes the inspector is on the roof when a tenant calls about a drip. Do not let anyone guess at the source from inside the house. Ask the inspector to mark the attic spot, photograph it, and note the date and time. Then ask the tenant to place a bucket under the drip and report whether the water stops when the rain does. A leak that appears in one storm and stops within an hour usually points to a flashing edge or a single cracked pipe boot, while a leak that keeps running for a full day suggests water is traveling along a rafter or a nail line before it shows on the ceiling.

Write down the rainfall for the day if you can, either from a personal gauge or from the nearest reporting station. A short, heavy storm and a long, soaking rain do different things to a roof, and the difference matters when the inspector later decides which slope to look at first. A tenant's bucket log, a dated set of photographs and the inspector's attic marks together make a much clearer record than any single observation.

Freeze and thaw changes the schedule

St. Louis winters cycle through freeze and thaw often enough that a roof inspected in January may look different from one inspected in October. Ice at the eave can hide the shingle condition beneath it, and a roof covered in frost cannot be walked safely. If an inspection is booked for the middle of winter, ask whether the roofer will reschedule when the roof is icy, and get the rescheduling terms in writing before the date arrives. A report that says a slope was not walked because of ice is more useful to an owner than a report that implies the slope was checked from a distance.

Spring is the other hard season. Snowmelt and rain can leave the decking wet for days after the surface looks dry, and a damp deck hides nail heads and soft spots. Ask whether the inspector will check the deck temperature and moisture before walking, and whether a second visit will be scheduled if the attic is still wet on the first day. The owner should not sign off on a report for a roof that was walked while the decking was still saturated.

Permits and the city desk

An inspection alone does not usually require a permit, but a repair or a reroof on a rental often does. Many St. Louis County municipalities issue roofing permits through their own building desks, and the rules for a rental may differ from the rules for an owner-occupied house in the same town. Call the city building desk before the scope is approved and ask whether a permit is needed for the work described. Put the answer in the file alongside the inspection report, along with the permit number if one is issued.

What to ask before you book

• Who receives the written report, in what format, and by what date.
• Whether the inspector will enter the attic, and how the attic hatch will be reached.
• Where the ladder will be set and who will move a vehicle or a stored item out of the way.
• What happens if the roof is wet or icy on the day of the walk.
• Whether the company will attend a second visit if a tenant reports a leak after the inspection.

To book an inspection or ask a question about the roof on a rental, call Keys at (314) 220-2333. Bring the lease, the address and the list of tenants' access windows, and the office can tell you what the walk will involve before anyone is scheduled to climb the ladder.