By Core 4 Insurance Team · Licensed Florida Insurance Agency · Miramar, FL
About $100 to $150, under an hour, good for five years — and Florida law requires your insurer to discount the windstorm part of your premium for what it finds. Here is what the inspector looks at, what it realistically saves, and the two traps that quietly cost homeowners the credit.
Somewhere in your homeowners premium is a windstorm charge, and in Florida it's usually the biggest single piece of the bill. A wind mitigation inspection is the one document that can shrink it — and a lot of Florida homeowners are either skipping it or sitting on an expired one without realizing.
It costs around a hundred bucks and takes under an hour. Here's what it actually is, what the inspector looks at, what it realistically saves, and the two traps that quietly cost people their discount.
If your premium has been climbing and you're not sure why, this pairs with why Florida home insurance went up — mitigation credits are one of the few levers you actually control.
What is a wind mitigation inspection?
The short answer: It's a standardized inspection that documents your home's hurricane-resistant features on a single state form. Florida law then requires your insurer to give you credit for what's on it.
An inspector comes out, looks at how your house is built — mostly the roof — takes photos, and fills in a state form. That form goes to your insurance company, and any qualifying features on it reduce the windstorm portion of your premium.
The form has a name you'll see on paperwork: the Uniform Mitigation Verification Inspection Form, or OIR-B1-1802. Everyone in the industry just calls it "the 1802." It's the same form statewide, so every Florida insurer reads it the same way.
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| What does it cost? | Typically $100–$150 in most of Florida |
| How long does it take? | Usually under an hour |
| How long is it good for? | Five years from the inspection date |
| Is it required? | No — but without one you get no mitigation credit at all |
| Who can perform it? | A licensed home inspector, contractor, professional engineer or architect |
| What does it discount? | The windstorm portion of your premium, not the whole policy |
Two Florida laws sit behind this. One requires insurers to give discounts for verified wind-resistant features. The other sets the form and spells out who's qualified to sign it. You don't need to know the numbers — you just need to know the discount isn't a favor your insurer is doing you. It's required.
What changed on April 1, 2026?
The short answer: The state updated the 1802 form. It followed a new wind-loss study finished in 2024, and the revised form took effect April 1, 2026 — under four months ago.
This is the part almost nobody has heard about yet.
Florida law requires the Office of Insurance Regulation to periodically review which building features actually reduce hurricane damage, and to update the related discounts. A research firm completed a residential wind-loss study in June 2024. The updated form came out of that work and took effect on April 1, 2026.
It's also a reminder of something we see constantly: nobody is going to tell you when your form lapses. Insurers aren't required to send a warning. The credit just quietly stops applying at renewal, and unless you're reading your declarations page line by line, you won't notice.
What does the inspector actually look at?
The short answer: Mostly the roof. How it's shaped, how the deck is nailed down, how it's attached to the walls, whether there's a secondary water barrier, and how well your windows and doors are protected.
The form is organized into sections that work from the building's age and code upward. These are the ones that tend to move the number:
Roof shape
A hip roof — sloped on all four sides — sheds wind far better than a gable, which catches it like a sail. This is one you can't change without a re-roof, but it's frequently the largest credit on the form.
Roof deck attachment
How the plywood is fastened to the trusses. Ring-shank nails at tight spacing hold dramatically better than old staples, and this is checked from inside the attic.
Roof-to-wall connection
Whether hurricane clips, single wraps or double wraps tie the roof structure to the walls. Toe-nails only is the weakest result and the most common on older homes.
Opening protection
Impact-rated windows and doors, or shutters covering every opening. Miss one window and the whole category can drop — protection is graded on the weakest opening.
Secondary water resistance
A sealed membrane under the roof covering that keeps water out if shingles blow off. Usually added during a re-roof, rarely retrofitted on its own.
Building code & roof covering
When the home was permitted and when the roof was last replaced. Newer code compliance carries real weight, and South Florida's high-velocity zone has its own standards.
Notice how much of this is the roof. If you're weighing a re-roof, that's the moment to ask the contractor about mitigation features — clips, ring-shank nails, a secondary water barrier — because adding them during a re-roof costs a fraction of retrofitting later.
How much does it actually save?
The short answer: It depends entirely on your house, and the honest range is wide — from very little to genuinely substantial. What we can tell you is what it applies to and what caps it.
We won't put a savings figure on a web page and call it yours. Anyone who does is guessing. But here's the arithmetic that determines your number.
First, the discount applies to the windstorm portion of your premium — not the whole policy. In Florida that portion commonly runs anywhere from about 30% to 70% of the total bill, depending on your home's value and where you are. Coastal Broward and Miami-Dade sit at the high end. Inland central Florida sits lower.
That 88% number gets quoted constantly, and it's real. It's also badly misunderstood, so here's the caveat most articles leave out:
For homes that do make improvements, the state's My Safe Florida Home program has reported average insurance savings of over $900 a year for homeowners completing qualifying upgrades. That's a program-specific figure rather than a promise about your house, but it's a reasonable sense of the scale when meaningful work gets done.
The way to think about it: a $100–$150 inspection that lasts five years needs to save you about $30 a year to break even. Most Florida homes clear that easily. The question isn't whether it's worth doing — it's how much you'll get.
What goes wrong with wind mitigation discounts?
The short answer: Expired forms, unqualified inspectors, and partial opening protection. All three are avoidable, and all three cost real money.
These are the ones we see most often:
Is it worth getting one?
The short answer: For almost any Florida home, yes. It's one of the few things that lowers your premium without lowering your coverage.
Most ways to cut a homeowners premium involve giving something up — a higher deductible, less coverage, dropping an endorsement. Mitigation credits are different. Nothing about your protection changes. You're just documenting what your house already is.
It's especially worth doing if any of these apply: you've never had one, your last one is approaching five years, you've re-roofed or added shutters or impact glass since your last inspection, or you're shopping for a new policy and want the credits applied from day one.
One thing worth being clear about: the credits are applied by your insurer, and different carriers weight them somewhat differently within the state framework. That's part of why we compare 120+ carriers with the same 1802 form in hand — the same house with the same features doesn't always get the same credit everywhere.
Our bilingual team helps Florida homeowners sort this out every week, in English or Spanish, whether or not you're a Core 4 client.
The bottom line on wind mitigation inspections
A wind mitigation inspection costs about the same as a nice dinner out, takes under an hour, and lasts five years. In a state where the windstorm charge is frequently the largest single piece of a homeowners premium, that's one of the best-value hours you can spend on your house.
Just go in with clear expectations. The discount applies to the windstorm portion of your bill, not the whole thing. The much-quoted 88% ceiling is real but not cumulative — one credit reduces another, and only well-protected homes approach it. And the form expires after five years with no warning from anyone.
If you've never had one, get one. If you have, find out when it expires. If you've re-roofed since, get a new one — a re-roof can improve several categories at once, and none of that reaches your premium until it's documented.
Core 4 has served more than 14,000 Florida clients since 2014 and compares 120+ carriers on every quote. Bring us your 1802 — or tell us you don't have one — and we'll show you what it's worth across the market. Call (954) 420-1501 or come by 3488 Red Road in Miramar. Walk-ins welcome, English or Spanish.
About this guide
Who wrote it. Written and reviewed by the Core 4 Insurance team — licensed Florida insurance producers based in Miramar, Broward County. Core 4 is an independent agency, so we price the same home with the same mitigation credits across 120+ carriers rather than quoting a single brand.
Where we work. Statewide across Florida, with our office and deepest local experience in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties.
How we source it. Statutory and program claims trace to the Florida Statutes, Chapter 627 and the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation’s wind mitigation resources. Figures are dated inline and reviewed quarterly.
Regulator. Core 4 Insurance is licensed by the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation.
Last reviewed by the Core 4 Insurance Team on July 24, 2026. Florida mitigation rules and discount tables change — the state form itself was updated in April 2026 — so we re-verify this guide quarterly. For the broader picture, see our flagship Florida Homeowner’s Insurance Guide.