What a wind mitigation inspection changes on your Florida policy
We Insure Downtown Miami
Florida law does not treat wind mitigation credits as a courtesy. A residential property rate filing must include discounts for construction features that reduce windstorm losses. What decides whether yours are on the record is a single document — the state's uniform mitigation verification form — and most owners have never ordered one.
The credit is written into the statute
Section 627.0629(1) of the Florida Statutes opens by stating the Legislature's intent that insurers "provide savings to consumers who install or implement windstorm damage mitigation techniques," and then makes it an obligation: a rate filing for residential property insurance must include actuarially reasonable discounts, credits, or other rate differentials, or appropriate reductions in deductibles, for properties with fixtures or construction techniques demonstrated to reduce windstorm loss.
The statute names the categories: wind uplift prevention, roof strength, roof covering performance, roof-to-wall strength, wall-to-floor-to-foundation strength, opening protection, and window, door and skylight strength.
Two things follow from that text, and both matter more than they look.
The obligation is on the rate filing, not on your policy. The credit exists in how a carrier builds its rates. It reaches you only if the carrier knows your property has the features — which is what the inspection is for.
The statute sets no percentages. It directs the Office of Insurance Regulation to determine values that "reflect the full actuarial value," which carriers may then use in their filings. Any specific number you read about a hip roof or a secondary water barrier is a rating decision, not law. This post does not publish any, and you should be wary of anyone who does.
One form, and it belongs to the state
The document is the Uniform Mitigation Verification Inspection Form, designation OIR-B1-1802, adopted by Rule 69O-170.0155 of the Florida Administrative Code. The current revision is 04/26, effective April 1, 2026, and it replaced a version that had been in use since 2012. It is longer than the old one — six pages instead of four — and it asks for the documentation that backs each answer, not just the answer.
Section 627.711(2)(a) of the Florida Statutes says an insurer shall accept as valid a form signed by a qualified inspector. You are not asking a carrier for a favour when you send it. You are filing a document the state designed for that purpose.
Who is allowed to sign it
The statute lists the categories, and the form repeats them as checkboxes the inspector has to tick:
- a home inspector licensed under s. 468.8314 who has completed the hurricane mitigation training the statute requires;
- a building code inspector certified under s. 468.607;
- a general, building or residential contractor licensed under s. 489.111;
- a professional engineer licensed under s. 471.015;
- a professional architect licensed under s. 481.213;
- any other individual or entity recognized by the insurer as possessing the necessary qualifications.
That last one is worth reading twice. It is the only category that depends on the carrier rather than on a licence, and it is the reason to confirm who is coming before the inspection rather than after.
It is good for five years — with two conditions
The form states its own shelf life on every page: it is valid for up to five years, provided no material changes have been made to the structure or inaccuracies are found on the form.
Both conditions do work. A remodel that touches the roof or the openings is a material change, and it can restart the clock — which is one of several reasons a remodel is worth telling your carrier about.
The form also carries a line that no marketing page will quote: "Some items listed may not qualify for a discount." The form records what your building has. What that is worth is a separate question, answered by each carrier's filing.
The all-or-nothing rule on openings
This is the part that is worth knowing before the inspector arrives, because it is the only part you can still do something about.
Section 9 of the form asks a single question about opening protection: "What is the WEAKEST form of wind-borne debris protection installed on the structure?" It is not an average and it is not a count. The inspector checks one row, and the row is set by the weakest opening on the building.
The scope is broader than people expect. The form says the category "includes all openings in the wall and roof including windows, doors, sliding glass doors, skylights, and garage doors," and excludes gable and other roof vents. So:
- The garage door counts. It is often the largest unprotected opening on a house and the one people forget.
- Skylights count, and they are rated on their own missile standard.
- A back door counts as much as the front picture window.
- Damaged openings are their own level. The form states that openings needing replacement do not qualify for wind mitigation rate differentials "regardless of the presence/absence of other features."
The practical consequence is blunt: one unprotected window, one bare skylight or one damaged sliding door and the whole structure is classified at that level, no matter how good everything else is. Ten protected openings and one that is not do not average out to something.
What to do with that. Before the inspection, walk the perimeter and count openings, including the garage and anything on the roof. If one is unprotected or damaged, you now have a choice you did not know you had: fix it first, or book the inspection knowing what it will say. Either is better than paying for a report that records a level you could have moved.
The same form does not pay the same everywhere
Here is the part that almost never gets said.
The statute requires every carrier to include mitigation credits in its rate filing. It does not require them to be the same credits. Each company files its own, built on its own book of business and its own view of the risk. The Office of Insurance Regulation determines values that reflect the full actuarial value, "which may be used by insurers in rate filings."
So one document — your form, unchanged, with the same checkboxes — is worth different things at different companies. A property whose strength is opening protection and a property whose strength is roof-to-wall attachment will not find the same carrier most generous.
That is the whole argument for comparing rather than renewing, and it does not require a single number to make. It is also what an independent agency does mechanically: the same form goes to several carriers and the differences come back. An owner doing this alone typically sees one answer and has no way to know whether it was a good one.
What this post does not answer
This is an article about how the inspection and the form work. It is not a reading of your policy and it is not a quote.
It cannot tell you what your credit will be — that depends on your building and on the carrier's filing, and anyone quoting you a percentage before seeing the form is guessing. It does not cover the construction side: whether a specific shutter, window or garage door meets a given standard is a product-approval question. And it does not tell you whether an upgrade pays for itself, which is arithmetic that needs your actual numbers.
For the coverage this sits on top of: home and condo insurance, which is also where the hurricane deductible options Florida insurers must offer are set out. If you own a unit in a building rather than a house, start with high-rise buildings and condominiums: the roof and often the openings belong to the association, and that changes who the inspection is even for.
Questions we get about wind mitigation
Do I have to have an inspection?
No. Nothing obliges you to order one. What the law obliges is the carrier to carry mitigation credits in its rates — and without the form, there is nothing on file that says your building qualifies for any of them.
My house is new. Is it worth it?
Newer construction is generally where the form has the most to record, because the features the statute names are built in. The question is whether they are documented on the state's form and in front of your carrier, which is a different question from whether they exist.
I had one done a few years ago. Do I need a new one?
Check the date and the revision. A form is valid for up to five years, and the current revision took effect on April 1, 2026 — an older form on the previous version is not automatically worthless, but it records fewer things, because the new one added categories.
Can the inspection make my premium go up?
The form documents what the building is. If it records that an opening is damaged or that a feature is not what a carrier had assumed, that is information the carrier can act on. The honest framing is that the form makes the property's real condition visible — which is usually good news and is occasionally not.
Who pays for it?
The owner, normally. It is a service you order, not something the carrier sends.
Where to start
If you own a house in South Florida and have never sent a mitigation form to your carrier, that is the gap worth closing — and the second step is making sure the form goes to more than one company.
Get in touch with We Insure Downtown Miami with what you already have, or start a coverage review and bring the form if you have one.