In March of 2002 the concept of issuing "Wind Mitigation Insurance Credits" was first floated by the Florida Legislature.
A Brief History of Florida's Wind Mitigation Insurance Program
In March of 2002 the concept of issuing "Wind Mitigation Insurance Credits" was first floated by the Florida Legislature. Its purpose was to allow home owners, who made hurricane strengthening improvements to their homes to receive insurance discounts, as opposed to similar homes without any improvements.
In 2006 the State of Florida created the "My Safe Florida Home Program". Its purpose was to define and fund home improvements which would make existing homes better able to withstand hurricane damage. The program would provide home owners with free home inspections to identify weaknesses and provide grants to make improvements. In June of 2006 the program was abandoned due to a lack of funding.
From 2002 to 2007 a number of varying forms and improvement requirements were used by insurance companies to determine what discounts would be provided to eligible home owners. In July of 2007 the first "Uniform Wind Mitigation Inspection Form" was adopted by the State of Florida. The form has been revised three times and the current format with its requirements was adopted in January of 2012. Some changes included dropping any discounts for CBS as opposed to frame homes and adding upgraded protection needs for skylights, glass block windows and garage doors.
The home's features that will be reviewed to establish insurance credits include: the home's age to determine applicable building code, roof shape and age, nailing pattern of roof sheathing to the rafters or trusses, anchoring of roof rafters or trusses to the home's walls, storm protection for all windows doors and skylights and finally, secondary water resistance added under the roof material (this is rarely seen).
The rate of discount for "complying" or improving an area is agreed upon by the insurance companies and the State. The percent of insurance fee discounts for multiple features may not add up to the sum of credits for individual features in "compliance". Some features will gain greater credits than others. The year the home was built, the age of the roof, it's anchoring to the structure, and the degree of storm protection for "glazed openings" will gain the most credits. A copy of the Wind Mitigation Inspection Report can be Goggled by typing "FL Wind Report" or clicking here.
