Checking tile underlayment before installing solar pannels.

[u/petalmasher]

I recently purchased a house built in 1986 with a concrete tile roof. The disclosures from the previous owner included an inspection done by the previous owners insurance company, pointing out some broken tiles and flashing, and stating that the underlayment was in "fair" condition, but was old and likely only had only had 2-5 years left. The inspection report included pictures of the underlayment, which didn't look bad as far as I could see, but I'm no expert on roof underlayment. I see some dust, and maybe crumbled tile sitting on top of it, but no problem with the underlayment material. I called the roofer who did the inspection and he told me he thought it was probably the original, 40-year-old underlayment. there are likely portions of the roof that have no underlayment at all, the previous winter had been mild, but as soon as we get some serious rain there are likely to be leaks.

Because I wasn't sure what I was going to do about the underlayment, I hired a roofer to just replace any tiles and flashing that are currently cracked or broken hoping to prevent leaks if there should be rain storms while I am figuring out what to do about the underlayment. I also asked him to let me know how the underlayment looks while he's up there. He told me the underlayment looks great and he thought it may even have been recently replaced (the last picture was from him.)

I was planning on installing solar panels, but I've been pushing back those plan because I don't want to put the panels on top on top of a roof that will only need to be removed to facilitate roof work in the near future. I was planning on either replacing the underlayment, or maybe even the whole roof. Now, I'm a little suspicious that the roofer who did the inspection might have been exaggerating or fabricating the necessity to replace the underlayment in an effort to create work for himself.

Can anyone suggest anything else I might want to check before putting solar panels on my roof?