Leak in a 5 year old roof

I have been helping my sister look for a house.  She is thinking about putting down an offer on a place that was built in 2014.  The house has  a composite roof.  There is a stain around one of the lights on the top floor.  The agent says that the owners had a leak about two years ago but it was patched and they haven't had any other problems since.

Is this something that my sister should be concerned about or is there a shake out period for a roof in which small problems are corrected?  My sister thinks it may be a sign of poor craftsmanship although we don't see anything else in the house to indicate that it may be a problem.

When you say composite, do you mean flat?  Either way you need to pay for an inspection.  Roofs do not have a settling in period, and if they repaired it you need to know that it was properly done.  A bucket of tar is never correct

I highly recommend a home inspection. Should you need some recommendations I’d be happy to provide, just PM me. 

vermontgolfer said:

I highly recommend a home inspection. Should you need some recommendations I’d be happy to provide, just PM me. 

 The house is in California so, unless you have a vast network of contacts......

FilmCarp said:

When you say composite, do you mean flat?  Either way you need to pay for an inspection.  Roofs do not have a settling in period, and if they repaired it you need to know that it was properly done.  A bucket of tar is never correct

 Its a pitched roof but the shingles are made of a composition of asphalt and other materials.  Most roofs are composite.

Klinker said:

 Its a pitched roof but the shingles are made of a composition of asphalt and other materials.  Most roofs are composite.

 Asphalt shingle roof.  Probably poor flashing.

I'd agree that the problem was/is probably from poor flashing (around a roof vent or chimney). I would be slightly wary that it had been fixed properly since apparently they were too lazy to paint the ceiling (or the problem has reoccured). 

Since the problem is on a house in California (with presumably less rain than around here) it's possible that a small problem could take quite awhile from initial installation to show in the form as you describe.

steel said:

Since the problem is on a house in California (with presumably less rain than around here) it's possible that a small problem could take quite awhile from initial installation to show in the form as you describe.

 Its in the mountains near Tahoe so a lot of the precipitation is snow and ice.