RHS Center Becoming the institutional standard for roof condition in property insurance
An Institutional Standard

The standard for roof condition the industry has been missing.

Property insurance has built standards around almost every variable that drives risk — credit scoring, vehicle history, actual cash value, building codes. Roof condition has remained the exception. The RHS Center is building the address-level standard the industry needs.

RH ScoreILLUSTRATIVE
Example Property Report
78/100
Fair
Risk decomposition
Hail (UL 2218)Class 3
Wind (ASTM D7158)Class G
UV degradationLow
Ice dam / freeze-thawModerate
Rain penetrationLow
Aligned with industry frameworks
UL 2218Impact resistance
ASTM D7158Wind uplift
PIPEDA / Law 25Privacy compliance
OSFI / AMFInsurance oversight
The Problem

Every other risk variable has a standard. Roof condition still doesn’t.

Over time, every major component of property risk has been formalized into an industry standard — an independent, methodology-published, address- or asset-anchored signal that any party can pull and trust. Roof condition is the conspicuous gap.

Credit riskFICO ScoreStandardized credit scoring became the financial industry’s universal risk language. Every lender pulls it. Every borrower has one.
Vehicle historyCARFAXAn address-equivalent (VIN-anchored) report that buyers, sellers, insurers, and lenders all reference before transacting.
Property valuationActual Cash Value (ACV)A formalized methodology for depreciation that drives every property claim settlement. Adjusters, insurers, and regulators rely on it.
Building safetyInternational Building Code / NFPAA common engineering framework that municipalities, insurers, and contractors all build to. Disagreements happen within it, not about it.
Energy performanceENERGY STARAn independent certification that consumers, utilities, and regulators all use as shorthand for efficiency.
Roof Condition— No accepted standard —The single largest driver of property claims has no independent, continuously-updated, address-anchored signal. Underwriters use roof age. Adjusters dispute condition. Homeowners have no recourse. The industry has been operating without a standard for the variable that matters most.
#1
Driver of homeowners insurance claim severity in most North American markets.
Property insurance industry data
~1/3
Of underwriting decisions misclassified when roof age is the dominant variable.
Industry modeling estimates
0
Independent, continuously-updated, address-level roof condition standards in production use today.
Market scan, 2026
Mission & Vision

Build the standard. Make it accessible. Earn the trust.

The RHS Center exists because the property risk economy has matured around standards in every category but this one. Our purpose is to close the gap — and to do it in a way that earns the trust of insurers, regulators, lenders, and homeowners simultaneously.

Mission

To establish and steward the institutional standard for roof condition assessment.

A continuous, independent, transparently-governed roof condition score that every party in a property transaction can pull and act on — from underwriting to claims to ownership transfer. Methodology-published. Address-anchored. Built for institutional use.

Vision

A property economy where roof condition is as transparent as credit, valuation, or vehicle history.

Every insurer, reinsurer, lender, regulator, REIT, adjuster, and homeowner can reference the same address-anchored signal. Underwriting accuracy improves. Claim disputes resolve faster. Loss prevention becomes investable.

What We Deliver

A signal, an integration, and a governance commitment.

We are not selling a black-box analytics product. We are building a standard that needs to live inside the workflows insurers, adjusters, and lenders already use — and that needs to be defensible to regulators, auditors, and the homeowners it scores.

01 — THE SIGNAL

The RH Score — a 100-point address-anchored roof condition score

Continuous, not binary. Updated as conditions change. Decomposable into the categories insurers and adjusters need: hail, wind, UV, ice dam, rain. Designed to be usable by an actuary, an underwriter, an adjuster, and a homeowner.

02 — THE INTEGRATION

API and reporting infrastructure

Pull by quote, bind, claim, renewal, or portfolio scan. Designed to integrate with the policy administration and claims systems insurers already operate. Reporting outputs sized for actuarial use and homeowner use, in parallel.

03 — THE GOVERNANCE

Published methodology, versioned releases, independent oversight

Every score carries a methodology version. Methodology updates are announced. Disputes have a published resolution process. The governance is built to survive scrutiny from a regulator, an auditor, and a homeowner — because the standard cannot stand without all three.

04 — THE COMMITMENT

An evolving standard, built with the industry

The RHS Center is not a finished product. We are building a standard, and standards mature through use, feedback, and accountability. Early partners help shape the integration roadmap and the governance structure. Bring us to the next level.

Who It’s For

Built for every party making a roof-driven decision.

A standard is only a standard if it’s usable across the ecosystem. We are designing for the institutions that price roof risk, settle roof claims, finance roofed properties, and live under them.

Property InsurersUnderwriting · Claims · RenewalReplace a broken age proxy. Drive loss prevention. Anchor ACV and depreciation conversations in an independent signal. Use score-gated discounts and treatment subsidies.
ReinsurersTreaty Pricing · Portfolio RiskAggregate scores at the book level. Use roof condition as a treaty pricing input. Cede smarter on portfolios with better roof health.
Mortgage & Refi LendersCollateral AssessmentBring an objective roof signal into collateral underwriting. Reduce surprises in the years between origination and refinancing.
REITs & Commercial OwnersCapital Planning · ESGScore portfolios at scale. Negotiate insurance from a position of evidence. Report roof resilience inside climate-adaptation disclosures.
Independent AdjustersClaim SettlementAn independent umpire in repair-vs-replace disputes. Pre-loss baseline against which post-loss claims can be assessed.
HomeownersTransparency · Disputes · TransactionsAn objective signal at sale, refinance, claim, or contractor decision. Score follows the property, not the owner. Dispute and re-inspection rights.
RegulatorsRate Filing · Consumer ProtectionA defensible, methodology-published input for risk-based pricing review. A transparency anchor for consumer dispute resolution.
Why Now

The pressure for a roof condition standard is no longer optional.

Several forces are converging at once. Each on its own would justify the work. Together they have made the absence of a standard untenable.

Loss Ratios

Climate-driven claim severity is rising faster than premium

Hail and wind frequency and severity are climbing across North American markets. Insurers cannot price what they cannot measure, and roof age has stopped predicting what’s underneath.

Regulators

Risk-based pricing transparency is becoming a requirement

State insurance departments, OSFI, AMF, and equivalent bodies are pushing insurers toward more defensible risk-based pricing. Roof age is not a defensible answer anymore.

ACV Disputes

The cost of contested depreciation is now structural

ACV calculation on roof claims is one of the most disputed areas in property insurance. The lack of an objective condition input fuels every dispute. An independent score changes the conversation.

Treatment Economics

Loss-prevention math now favors intervention over replacement

Roof treatment products are showing benefit-cost ratios that justify insurer-funded subsidies — but only if a credible eligibility signal exists. That signal is the RH Score.

Standards Alignment

Building on the frameworks the industry already trusts.

We are not inventing new categories of risk. We are mapping a continuous condition score into the published frameworks that insurers, adjusters, and regulators already use.

UL 2218

Impact Resistance

Underwriters Laboratories standard for impact resistance of roof covering materials. Classes 1 through 4.

ASTM D7158

Wind Uplift

Wind-resistance standard for asphalt shingles. Classes D, G, and H at 115, 150, and 190 mph.

PIPEDA / Law 25

Privacy Compliance

Canadian federal and Quebec privacy framework alignment. Property data and personal data separated by design.

OSFI / AMF / DOI

Insurance Oversight

Designed to integrate with the rate-filing and risk-based pricing review processes used by Canadian and US regulators.

Governance & Independence

An industry standard cannot be the standard if it is also a vendor.

For the RHS Center to function as a standard, it must be governed like one. That means transparent methodology, anti-exclusivity by structure, independence from product affiliation, and a published accountability framework. We have built the governance to match the ambition.

Read the full governance commitments →

  • Published methodologyOur scoring framework, weights, and version history will be published openly. Updates are announced. Comparison across versions is documented. The FICO 8 / 9 / 10 governance model.
  • Anti-exclusivity by structureNo insurer receives exclusive market access. No product manufacturer receives exclusive certification access. Universal availability is a structural commitment, not a marketing line.
  • Independent oversightMethodology versioning, dispute resolution, and certification decisions are designed to be governed independently of any single commercial relationship.
  • Disclosure of related entitiesThe RHS Center was incubated by a Quebec-based nanotechnology company developing roof treatment products. The RHS Center is independently governed and applies its methodology to all qualifying products on equal terms.
Partner With Us

Bring us to the next level.

The RHS Center is an evolving standard, not a finished product. Insurers, reinsurers, lenders, REITs, regulators, and adjusters who engage early help shape the methodology priorities, governance structure, and integration roadmap. We are looking for partners — not customers — for this stage of the work. We’ll publish direct partnership contact details as we open the early-partner program.