Roofing Audit Bills
Are Often Wrong.

Roofing is one of the highest-risk trades for both workers' comp and general liability insurers. High injury rates, significant property damage exposure, and heavy use of subcontractors make roofing policies a priority for audit. Florida's active storm market adds additional scrutiny because post-hurricane surge work often involves rapid hiring of unverified subs.

A workers' comp audit verifies your payroll and employee classification — specifically whether workers were correctly coded under 5551 (roofing) vs. lower-rated codes. A GL audit verifies your gross receipts and confirms that subcontractors had their own GL coverage. Both audits can generate unexpected bills, and both can be disputed. It is common for roofers to receive both audits simultaneously at policy expiration.

Yes — and their GL certificate too. If a roofing subcontractor cannot provide a certificate of insurance showing active workers' comp and GL coverage, your carrier may include their payroll in your workers' comp audit and their receipts in your GL audit. This is the single most common source of surprise audit bills for roofing contractors and GCs who hire roofing subs.

NCCI class code 5551 covers roofing work in Florida and carries one of the highest workers' comp rates in the state — typically $20–$35 per $100 of payroll depending on the carrier and your experience mod. If any of your employees were misclassified under a lower-rated code (e.g., 5645 for carpentry or 5606 for supervisors), the audit will reclassify them to 5551 and generate an additional premium bill. Proper classification from day one prevents this.

Yes. You have 30–60 days from receiving the audit bill (depending on your carrier) to formally dispute the findings. The most effective disputes include: certificates of insurance from all subs, payroll records showing correct employee classification, and documentation separating repair work from new construction (for GL audits). Disputes without documentation are rarely successful.

A ghost policy (also called an owner-only policy) is a workers' comp policy that covers a sole proprietor or LLC owner who has no employees. It satisfies the certificate of insurance requirement without covering any employees. Roofing subs who are sole proprietors often carry ghost policies so they can provide a valid WC certificate to GCs. If your sub provides a ghost policy certificate, verify it is current and that the sub has no employees working on your job.

Your experience modification rate (EMR) is a multiplier applied to your base workers' comp premium. An EMR above 1.0 increases your premium; below 1.0 decreases it. A roofing contractor with an EMR of 1.25 pays 25% more than the base rate. The EMR is calculated from your claims history over the prior 3 years. Audit overcharges that inflate your reported payroll can also affect future EMR calculations.