Every Florida homeowner’s insurance renewal packet contains a notice about wind mitigation discounts. Florida Statute 627.711 requires it, at issuance and at every single renewal, on a form the Office of Insurance Regulation writes for the insurer. It has to state what discounts are available, the range of each one, and what would reduce a windstorm premium.
Claiming any of it comes down to one document, and that document is unusual. It isn’t looking for what’s wrong with the house. It records the features the house already has, so your insurer can price the house it’s actually insuring rather than an unknown one.
Insurance is not a small line on the Space Coast. It can decide whether two otherwise identical homes are affordable, and it tends to be the number that lands last, when the quote comes in and the monthly payment moves.
The form is what your insurer prices from
The Uniform Mitigation Verification Inspection Form, OIR-B1-1802, is what an authorized inspector completes during a wind mitigation inspection. The Office of Insurance Regulation states it’s valid for up to five years, provided no material changes are made to the structure and no inaccuracies are found on the form.
Five years is the detail that matters, and it’s the one I find gets overlooked. A form completed for a seller two years ago is generally still live. If you’re buying, you don’t automatically need a fresh one, so ask whether a form already exists before you order another. It takes thirty seconds to ask.
Who can sign it is set by statute rather than by your insurer, with one route left open to them. Under section 627.711(2)(a) that’s a home inspector licensed under section 468.8314 who has completed at least three hours of approved hurricane mitigation training and passed a proficiency exam, a certified building code inspector, a licensed general, building or residential contractor, a licensed professional engineer, a licensed professional architect, or anyone else the insurer recognizes as qualified.
The inspection has to be carried out by the person signing, with one exception the statute spells out: engineers and licensed contractors may authorize a direct employee to do it, provided that person is not an independent contractor and has the skill and experience for it. The insurer can ask about that employee’s qualifications before accepting the form.
There’s a consumer protection in there worth knowing about. Subsections (4) through (6) make it misconduct for an inspector to sign a form that falsely indicates a mitigation feature, or that covers something neither they nor an employee they authorized inspected, and they bar an inspector from offering an insurance agency or agent any compensation for sending the property owner their way. The agency is barred from accepting it. The referral traffic between inspectors and agents is what the statute is aimed at.
What a seller gains by having one in hand
If you already hold a current form, you take a variable off the buyer’s side, and variables are what slow contracts down.
Without one, your buyer applies for insurance on a property whose features aren’t documented, and the quote comes back priced on what the insurer can establish rather than on what the house has. That reaction lands during the inspection period, when a Brevard contract has the least room in it.
With it, the insurer is working from a record. A hip roof, a well-attached roof deck, protected openings: the form is what says which of those the house has, and a home with them prices differently from one without.
For an older Brevard home that’s had a roof replaced, the cost of an inspection is small next to what it can put on the record before a buyer ever asks for a quote.
What a buyer should ask before ordering anything
The sequence matters more than the cost.
Ask whether a Uniform Mitigation Verification Inspection Form already exists, and when it was completed. Inside five years, with no structural changes since, it may still serve. Ask the same about any roof work done in the meantime, because a new roof usually improves the picture rather than complicating it, but the form has to reflect it.
Where no form exists, ordering one early rather than late is the difference between negotiating with information and reacting without it. A quote that lands before the inspection period closes still leaves you room to act on it.
One more thing. The credits come from the insurer, not from the inspector. Two carriers can weigh the same form differently, which is why the form travels with the property and the quotes do not.
This applies just as much if you’re staying put
None of this is only for people buying or selling. The statute puts that notice in front of every policyholder at every renewal, so the information has been reaching Brevard homeowners for years, inside an envelope that arrives once a policy year and asks nothing of anybody.
The situation I see most often is an owner who replaced a roof three or four years ago, never had a wind mitigation inspection, and whose insurer has no record of the new roof. The work happened. The paperwork that would tell the insurer about it never got done.
If you have no plans to move, that’s the whole task: find out whether a current form exists, and if it doesn’t, whether your house has features worth documenting. It costs one inspection, and the form can stand for up to five years on the conditions above.
If you’re thinking about selling in the next year or two, doing it now rather than at listing has a second benefit. The form is in hand before you need it, instead of becoming one more thing to arrange during the compressed weeks after a contract is signed.
Where this sits in the sequence of a transaction
Timing is what makes this useful instead of academic.
An offer is accepted. The inspection period opens, and it’s short. You’re arranging a general inspection, possibly a four point inspection on an older home, an appraisal through your lender, and insurance quotes, and every one of those has a queue in front of it during a busy season on the Space Coast.
Insurance is often the last of those to settle, and the answer can vary between carriers. Having the form already in the file means one of the inputs is settled at the start rather than at the end.
Sellers who prepare the document before listing and buyers who ask for it in the first week of the inspection period are doing the same thing from opposite sides. They’re getting at one of the harder numbers to predict while there is still time to use the answer.
Who to ask about the premium itself
We can tell you this document exists, that it has to be honored, how long it lasts and when to order one. What a particular carrier will do with it, whether a specific policy is the right policy for you, and what your premium should be are questions for a licensed insurance agent. Which structural features your house has is what the inspector documents, and the statute lets your insurer verify those features for itself.
That line is worth keeping clean. A confident guess about a Florida insurance premium can cost somebody real money.
Frequently asked questions
How long is a Florida wind mitigation inspection good for? Up to five years, according to the Office of Insurance Regulation, provided no material changes are made to the structure and no inaccuracies are found on the form.
Can a buyer use the seller’s existing wind mitigation form? Often, where it’s within its five-year window and the structure hasn’t materially changed since. It’s worth asking for before ordering a new one.
Who is allowed to perform a wind mitigation inspection in Florida? Under section 627.711(2)(a): a home inspector licensed under section 468.8314 with at least three hours of approved hurricane mitigation training and a proficiency exam, a certified building code inspector, a licensed general, building or residential contractor, a licensed professional engineer, a licensed professional architect, or anyone else the insurer recognizes as qualified. Engineers and licensed contractors may authorize a qualified direct employee to carry out the inspection.
Is an insurer required to tell a homeowner about wind mitigation discounts? Yes. Section 627.711(1) requires insurers to clearly notify applicants and policyholders at issuance and at each renewal of the availability and range of each discount, and to describe what would reduce a windstorm premium.
Does a wind mitigation inspection ever raise a premium? The form records features rather than defects, and its purpose is to establish which credits apply. It can still change a premium, because it changes what the insurer knows: a form that corrects an earlier one, or that documents a feature the insurer had assumed differently, can move the number either way. What a particular carrier will do with a specific form is a question for a licensed insurance agent.
Should a wind mitigation inspection be done before or after a roof replacement? After, so the form reflects the current roof. A form completed before the work won’t describe the house a buyer is insuring.
Sources
- Florida Statute 627.711, wind mitigation discounts, Florida Senate, 2026 statutes
- Wind Mitigation Resources, Florida Office of Insurance Regulation, for form OIR-B1-1802 and its validity period
