Roofing is the most-permitted residential trade in the county — about 3,200 jobs in the last year. It is also where the cost of picking wrong is highest.
A roof is the single most expensive system in most South Florida homes, and the work is invisible once it is done — you cannot see the underlayment, the fasteners, or the flashing from your driveway. That is exactly why the paper trail matters more for roofing than for almost any other trade.
1. They pull their own permits. In Miami-Dade, a re-roof needs a permit, and the company doing the work should be the company on it. If a roofer asks you, the homeowner, to pull an owner-builder permit for their job, stop. That arrangement moves the legal responsibility for the work onto you, and it is the classic setup for unlicensed work.
2. They do this every month, not every year. Roofing crews that stay busy stay sharp, and their supplier and inspector relationships stay current. In the 12 months to October 2026, about 3,200 residential roofing permits were filed in Miami-Dade. A Radar roofing report shows which companies account for that work near your ZIP code, and how many jobs each one did.
3. Their permit values match your job. A company whose last twenty permits are all $12,000 shingle re-roofs is a different bet for a $70,000 tile roof than a company whose permits sit in that range. Compare like with like.
Permit history and license status are two different checks. Florida licenses roofers through the Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR), and the lookup is free — our license check guide walks through it. Do both: the license says they are allowed to do the work; the permit history says they actually do it, here, at your job's size.
Get your free report: the contractors who did the most jobs like yours near you this past year.
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