Wind Mitigation Inspection FAQ

If you have had a new roof installed, this inspection report is the primary way of letting your insurance company know you’ve had a new roof installed. Even before the recent string of hurricanes and the ongoing insurance crisis in the state, insurance companies were dropping customers with roofs over 10–15 years old with little or no notice. This inspection helps you avoid scrambling to get an up-to-date wind mitigation report and searching for a new insurer in a difficult market. Also, if your home is over 20 years old and you’ve been dropped, your new company will require an additional 4-point inspection (and the 4-point inspection must be less than 10 days old if you’re on bank-forced insurance). Headaches like those can be avoided by having this inspection.

If you have had wind mitigation related work performed (new roof, windows, doors, garage door, shutters, the “third nail”, etc), your existing wind mitigation report is now void. Once a wind-mitigation-related change is made to your home, Florida law automatically invalidates any prior report. That’s actually to your benefit — it ensures your insurance company has an accurate, current picture of your home, and the upgrade may qualify you for a lower premium.

Also while the report is good for 5 years, a new report was released in April of 2026. If your existing report says “Rev 01/12” at the bottom of the page, it was the old form. Many insurance companies are no longer honoring that old form, while others are allowing only a 1 year grace period. The new form has additional sections that the old form did not.

The Uniform Mitigation Verification Inspection Form (OIR-B1-1802, Rev. 04/26) used for your inspection is a required document. Virtually every Florida insurance company requires a current wind mitigation inspection to issue a quote — without one, your options shrink dramatically, or getting insured at all can become impossible.

With the ongoing insurance crisis in our state, the odds you’ll need this report are high even if you have no plans to switch companies. Since 2022, over 30 insurance companies have gone bankrupt or left Florida — more than 50% of the companies that were writing policies here. If you ever need to change insurers within the next 5 years, an up-to-date wind mitigation report showing your new roof (or other upgrade) will be required before they’ll cover you.

For example: if you had a new roof installation, your inspector will check that the deck was re-nailed with 8D nails spaced 6″ apart, that a secondary water barrier was installed, and that any replaced decking exceeds 7/16″, among other items. For a third-nail installation, the inspector will verify the straps have 3 or more nails and that straps/clips are no more than 1½” from the truss or rafter. For shutter or impact window installation, the home inspector will verify the hardware and materials are Miami-Dade approved and properly installed. City and county inspectors don’t inspect from the attic — this inspection checks the things they didn’t, the things that actually help your home resist wind.

You want to make sure the wind-resistance work you had done meets the requirements to qualify for insurance discount credits. Customers regularly tell me they saw around $1,400+ in savings after a new roof, or $750–$950/year after a third-nail retrofit. Every home and insurer is different — the age and material of the old roof play a factor — but most customers report significant savings, with a typical discount of 15–25% for a new roof. If you’ve paid your premium in full for the year, most companies issue a refund check quickly, which you can use to lower your mortgage escrow or offset the cost of the upgrade. After that, you’ll keep the savings for years to come.

The Wind Mitigation Inspection form is not solely for the work your contractor did. It covers everything wind resistance related to your home as they tend to impact one another as a system. For example, if one unprotected window/door or other opening is breached during a storm, it allows pressure to enter the house creating lift on the roof. So the inspection entails checking things other than the roof, such as impact windows, doors, shutters, garage doors, roof-to-wall connection (aka hurricane straps), your roof pitch, etc. I also will check these other items to see if they qualify for additional potential discount credits, then photograph/document them.

After witnessing the impact to the Cape Coral and Fort Myers area from Hurricane Ian, we all now know the potential danger of living in Southwest Florida. You will want to ensure that the work performed by your contractor meets the wind resistance requirements expected for the safety of your property and life. Your inspector will also note on the report other items your home has that offer wind resistance or impact protection. The report may also show where you can improve your safety with other additional updates in the future.

You want the insurance company to have an accurate representation of what your home has, and any improvements you may have made, so there can be no dispute about the coverage value/age of those items should something happen. For example, you might spend tens of thousands of dollars on impact-rated hurricane windows and doors. While they’re impact-rated, they can still crack. If they’re damaged in a storm, a picky insurer could get technical and deny the claim simply because they were unaware you’d installed expensive impact-rated glass.

You can still benefit from a wind mitigation inspection even if you self-insure. Among other things, it can verify your contractor’s work meets wind-resistance standards, giving you peace of mind. City and county inspectors don’t check the attic, so this inspection can catch things theirs can’t — broken deck planking, for example, is only visible from inside the attic.

Insurance companies offer discount credits for specific features because those features lower the risk of property damage, injury, and death — so this report gives you a clear picture of where your home stands and what you could do to reduce your own financial and physical risk. The inspection typically takes under 30 minutes; in most cases all you need to do is open the garage door for attic access.(if that’s it’s location).

If there are deficiencies, or improvements that could be made, this report shows you what to address to better protect your home and potentially unlock additional discounts. Some fixes pay for themselves almost immediately through years of savings; others take longer but bring peace of mind either way. You’ll have what you need to weigh your options and choose the level of protection that fits your budget.

A wind mitigation inspection report shows prospective buyers what discounts the property currently qualifies for — while confirming your roof, windows, doors, shutters, or third-nail retrofit were installed to wind-resistant standards. You’ll also keep receiving any insurance discount credits until the property sells. Most inspections take under 30 minutes; in most cases all you need to do is open the garage door for attic access. The buyer will be required to have a wind mitigation report before they can get insurance, and should be able to use yours as a starting point. Saving the buyer time and money can help speed up the sale.