Wind mitigation inspections and insurance discounts

One form, and every insurer has to take it

Florida standardised this. Rather than each carrier running its own survey, the state uses a single document — the Uniform Mitigation Verification Inspection Form, OIR-B1-1802 — which insurers are required to accept. An authorised inspector completes it by recording what your house actually has, and your carrier rates the wind portion of your premium partly on the answers.

Section 627.0629 of the Florida Statutes requires the Office of Insurance Regulation to review the construction techniques shown to reduce windstorm damage, and the discounts and deductible reductions that go with them, every five years. The current form update follows a Residential Wind-Loss Mitigation Study completed in June 2024, and takes effect on 1 April 2026. The inspector completing it must be authorised under s. 627.711(2)(a).

What the law does not do is fix the size of any discount, which is why nobody should be quoting you a percentage before an inspection has happened. The amount depends on your carrier, your policy and which features the form actually verifies.

What the inspector is looking at

Roof covering

What is on the roof, and whether it was installed to a recognised standard with documentation to support it. The permit record matters here.

Roof deck attachment

How the sheathing is fastened to the structure — fastener type, size and spacing. This is invisible once a roof is on, which is exactly why it is inspected from inside the attic, and why a re-roof is the natural moment to improve it.

Roof-to-wall connection

How the roof structure is tied down to the walls: toe nails, clips, single or double wraps. It is one of the highest-value items on the whole form, because it is what stops uplift lifting the roof off the building.

Roof geometry

The shape of the roof. A hip roof — sloping on all sides — behaves differently in wind from a gable, which presents a flat vertical surface for wind to push against.

Secondary water resistance

Whether there is a barrier beneath the covering designed to keep water out if the covering itself is lost. Worth knowing: for site-built single-family homes this is not an optional upgrade. Florida law requires a roof replacement to incorporate a secondary water barrier and improved roof-decking attachment (s. 553.844(3)(a)). So the question to a contractor is not "will you include it?" but "show me how it was done, and give me the documentation".

Opening protection

Shutters, impact-rated glazing and rated doors. Not roofing, but it sits on the same form and it is often where the remaining upside is once the roof items are addressed.

Why a re-roof is the moment that matters

Look again at that list: covering, deck attachment, roof-to-wall connection, secondary water resistance. Four of the six items are roof items, and three of them are things nobody can change without taking the covering off.

Two of those — the secondary water barrier and the deck attachment — are required by statute on a roof replacement for site-built single-family homes, so on a compliant job you are getting them whether or not anyone discusses it with you. A third, roof-to-wall connection work, is required only in defined circumstances that depend on where the building sits and what it is worth; ask your building department whether it applies to yours.

What that changes is where your attention should go. The risk is not usually that a contractor omits the work — it is that the work is done and never documented, so an inspector cannot verify it later and you get no credit for something you already paid for. Photographs of the deck fastening and the barrier before the covering goes on, plus the permit and inspection records, are what turn compliant work into a verified form.

So the question to ask a contractor quoting a replacement is not only what it costs. It is what documentation you will be left holding when they have finished.

Getting the inspection done

1. Use an authorised inspector. The form has to be completed by someone qualified to complete it; a contractor's opinion is not the same document.
2. Make sure the attic is accessible. Deck attachment and roof-to-wall connections are verified from inside. If the inspector cannot get in, features you actually have may go unverified — and unverified means uncredited.
3. Find your permit documentation first. Roof covering compliance is easier to evidence with the paperwork in hand.
4. Send the completed form to your insurer and confirm it has been applied. Nothing happens automatically.
5. Keep a copy. It is valid for a period, it is useful at resale, and re-running an inspection you already paid for is a waste.

What not to expect

An inspection does not improve your house. It records what is already there. If the report comes back thin, that is information about the building rather than a failure of the inspection — and it tells you exactly which improvements would be worth making, in what order. Be wary of anyone promising a specific saving in advance, and of anyone offering a "guaranteed" result: the form records facts, and the facts are whatever your house is.

Worth doing even if you are not re-roofing

The re-roof is when you can change the most, but it is not the only reason to have the inspection done.

A completed form applies at renewal, and it is valid for a period rather than for a single policy year, so the cost is spread across several renewals rather than borne by one. If your house already has features that have never been documented — and older houses that have been re-roofed at some point often do — you may be paying for protection you already own without having told anyone.

It also produces a priority list. Once the roof items on the form are recorded, whatever is left unverified is the remaining upside, and opening protection is frequently where that sits. Knowing which improvement is worth making next, rather than guessing, is worth the inspection fee on its own even if the immediate result is modest.

One caution: have the inspection done by someone independent of whoever might sell you the improvements it recommends.