Wind Mitigation Inspection Florida: Cost, Form & Roof Credits

A wind mitigation inspection is a one-time cost, and the form is valid for up to five years as long as nothing material changes on the house. Eligible homeowners can get one free through the My Safe Florida Home program. It documents construction features that reduce windstorm loss, and Florida law requires insurers to price those features into what you pay. For most Florida homeowners it is a small one-time cost against a discount that repeats every year the form is valid.

Here is the part that is rarely said plainly, and the reason a roofing company is writing this: six of the form's nine categories are your roof. A wind mitigation inspection is mostly a roof inspection wearing an insurance form.

What a wind mitigation inspection actually checks

The form is standardised statewide — the uniform mitigation verification inspection form, developed by rule under Fla. Stat. § 627.711(2)(a), so every insurer is looking at the same answers. The current form, in use since April 1, 2026, asks nine questions, and six of them are about your roof: slope, covering, deck attachment, roof-to-wall attachment, geometry and secondary water resistance.

Categories per the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation's Uniform Mitigation Verification Inspection Form (OIR-B1-1802, Rev. 04/26). Only three of the nine (the code year, the region and your windows) are not the roof.

Why Florida law makes this worth doing

This is not a courtesy that carriers extend. Under Fla. Stat. § 627.0629(1), a residential property insurance rate filing must include "actuarially reasonable discounts, credits, or other rate differentials, or appropriate reductions in deductibles" for properties with construction features demonstrated to reduce windstorm loss. The statute names them explicitly, and the list is largely roof: wind uplift prevention, roof strength, roof covering performance, roof-to-wall strength, along with wall-to-floor-to-foundation strength and opening protection.

Separately, § 627.711(1) requires your insurer to notify you of the availability and range of every such discount at issuance and at every renewal. If you have never seen that notice, it is worth asking for. Since October 2023, § 627.0629(1) has also required carriers to describe their hurricane mitigation discounts on their own website, reachable from the home page or the main page for Florida property policyholders.

What it costs, and what it is worth

The inspection is a one-time cost, and the form is valid for up to five years as long as nothing material changes on the house (Florida Office of Insurance Regulation). Eligible homeowners can get one free through the My Safe Florida Home program. Savings vary by home, carrier and county, so the honest framing is a ratio rather than a promise: a one-time inspection cost against a discount that recurs every year the form is valid.

Two timing rules matter more than the exact number:

• A new roof resets the form. Replace the covering and the old inspection no longer describes your house. You need a new one — and that is the point, because a new roof usually moves several categories at once.
• Five years is a ceiling, not a target. If you have made no changes, the form stands. If you have, an old form may be understating your home.

Where a roof replacement moves the needle

Because six of the categories are the roof, a re-roof can move several of them at once. What changes:

• Roof covering — a new permitted covering meeting current code is the clearest upgrade on the form.
• Roof-deck attachment — a tear-off exposes the deck, which is when re-nailing to current nail size and spacing is possible at all. On an intact roof it simply cannot be done.
• Secondary water resistance — a sealed barrier under the covering can only be installed with the covering off. Worth knowing: when a roof covering is removed and replaced in Florida, a secondary water barrier is already required by building code, so the material may be going on your roof regardless of whether anyone records it on the form.
• Roof-to-wall attachment — clips and straps are sometimes improvable during a re-roof, depending on construction.

Roof geometry is the one you cannot change. Hip roofs earn their credit because they have no gable end wall for wind to push against; FEMA notes that gable end walls are at risk in hurricanes because of their shape. Nobody re-frames a house for the discount, but it explains why two neighbours with identical roofs can score differently — the geometry difference is worth understanding before you assume the form is wrong.

The practical sequence: get the roof done, then get the form. Inspecting first and re-roofing after means paying for two inspections and spending five years documented at your old rating. What that roof costs is the other half of the decision.

What actually earns each roof credit

The form records what is there, not what you meant to have. These are the distinctions that decide each roof category.

Roof-to-wall attachment

Recorded as toe nails, clips, single wraps or double wraps, from weakest to strongest, and the form records the weakest connection it finds. Toe nails are just the truss nailed down at an angle — the weakest option and standard on older Florida homes. Clips are metal connectors fastened to the truss and the wall. Wraps go over the top of the truss and down both sides, and a double wrap is fastened on both faces.

The inspector has to see these from inside the attic, and the form sets minimum nailing for each connector type. If the inspector cannot get into the attic, the form records "No attic access" for this category, so a home that might have deserved better gets no credit for it.

Roof-deck attachment

Measured by nail size and spacing holding the sheathing to the trusses. A deck fastened with 8d nails at 6 inches in the field records better than one held with staples or 6d nails, which is the lowest of the standard options on the form.

This is the category people are most surprised by, because it is invisible and unfixable without a tear-off. During a re-roof the deck is exposed and re-nailing to current standard is straightforward. On an intact roof, it cannot be done at all.

Secondary water resistance

A sealed roof deck beneath the covering: a fully adhered self-adhering membrane, taped deck seams under felt or synthetic, a double layer of felt or synthetic, or spray foam at the deck joints. A single layer of standard underlayment does not count, which catches a lot of homeowners out. Neither does a peel-and-stick strip in the valleys only; the category is about the deck as a whole.

Like deck attachment, it is installable only with the covering off — so the window for improving it is a roof replacement, and nowhere else.

Roof covering

What the inspector is establishing is whether the covering meets the Florida Building Code and when it was permitted. This is the category where the paperwork matters as much as the roof: a compliant covering with no retrievable permit record can be recorded less favourably than the same roof with its permit on file. Keep the permit and the product approval numbers from any re-roof.

Roof geometry

Hip, gable, or other, and it is measured rather than judged — the form uses the total length of non-hip features against the roof perimeter. A roof that looks like a hip but carries dormers or a gabled section may not qualify as one. This is the category nobody can improve without re-framing.

Who is legally allowed to sign the form

This matters more than most homeowners realise, because an unsigned or improperly signed form is not worth anything to a carrier. § 627.711(2)(a) requires insurers to accept a form signed by:

• A home inspector licensed under s. 468.8314 who has completed at least three hours of approved hurricane mitigation training and a proficiency exam
• 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
• Anyone else the insurer recognises as qualified

Note what is not on that list: a roofing contractor licence. A roofing-only licence (CCC) does not carry this authority. A building contractor licence (CBC) does, because it falls under s. 489.111. Universal Roof & Contracting holds CBC1258484 alongside CCC057165 — which is why roof work and this category of inspection can sit with the same company instead of being referred out.

Two more rules worth knowing as a homeowner. § 627.711(3) requires the signer to have personally inspected the structure and to attest to it. Contractors and engineers may delegate to a direct employee with the requisite skill — never an independent contractor — and the insurer may demand that employee's qualifications. § 627.711(4) makes it misconduct to falsely attest to a personal inspection or to falsely record a feature the home does not have. The form is a legal document, not a formality.

How to get one, and what to have ready

1. Find your roof permit. The permit date and number establish the roof covering's code compliance. County permit records are public and searchable online.
2. Get into the attic, or have someone who will. Deck attachment and roof-to-wall connections are documented from underneath. An inspector who never enters the attic cannot honestly complete the form.
3. Have window and door documentation ready if you have impact glass or shutters — product approval numbers support opening protection.
4. Send the completed form to your carrier and ask for it to be applied. The inspection earns nothing sitting in your email.
5. Re-do it after a re-roof, not before.

The honest verdict

For a Florida homeowner with a roof under twenty years old, a wind mitigation inspection is close to a default yes — the cost is small, the term is five years, and the statute obliges carriers to price the features it documents.

Where it is genuinely a coin flip is an older home with an original roof, toe-nailed connections and no secondary water resistance. The form will record what is there, and what is there may earn very little. Even then, knowing it is useful, because it tells you exactly which categories a future re-roof would move.

Our roof inspection is free and separate from this — we look at the roof itself, photograph what we find, and hand you a written condition report you keep either way. If the roof is sound, we will say so. If it is approaching the end of its life, the wind mitigation categories are part of the conversation about what to do next, and the four-point inspection is the other form Florida homeowners get asked for.

Statutory references are to the Florida Statutes as published by the Florida Legislature. The five-year validity is from the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation. Discounts vary by carrier, county and home — this is general information about how the form works, not a prediction of your premium. Your insurer or agent determines what your discount is.