The New Florida Wind Mitigation Form: What Changed and What It Means for Your Home

A wind mitigation form is a record of the features that help a house hold together in high wind. An inspector looks at the roof, the attic and the openings, takes photos, and marks what is there. The insurance company then uses that record when it sets the wind part of a policy. Credits may apply, and what they are depends on the carrier.

All Corners Home Inspection, based in Spring Hill, FL, is run by Jay Sampson and does wind mitigation inspections in Hernando, Pasco and Citrus counties.

The form has been around for years, and the revision changes parts of it. If you are holding a report written on an earlier version, it helps to know which sections were revised and which items were added. Those are listed below.

Read this first. Insurers set their own rules about which version of the form they accept. Ask your agent or carrier.

What is listed as revised or added. The revision covers the building code, roof covering, roof deck attachment, roof-to-wall connection, secondary water resistance and opening protection sections. It adds places to document FORTIFIED Roof, Silver or Gold designations (a voluntary home-strengthening program, where a home has one), a region designation by design wind speed, and roof slope. We document those items whenever they apply to the home in front of us.

• ✓Documented, not assumed. If a feature cannot be seen or supported, the report says so. It does not guess in the home's favor.
• ✓Photos for each feature. Each section of the report has the pictures behind it, so your agent or carrier can see what the entry is based on.
• ✓Roof shape and slope noted. Hip, gable and mixed rooflines are recorded as they are, and the slope is documented where the form asks for it.

Think of the roof deck as the lid on the house. If the lid stays nailed down in a storm, the walls and everything under it have a better chance. If it lifts, wind and rain get in, and the damage follows fast.

How well the lid is attached depends on the size of the nails, how far apart they are, and what they hit underneath. Some of that is visible from the attic, and some of it is only provable with paperwork from the original roofing job. A building contractor reads the underside of a deck the way a mechanic reads a worn tire. The nail patterns, the age of the wood and the signs of past moisture all tell the story.

That is why a roof replaced since an older report can change this section. A new deck with new fasteners may read differently than the one it replaced. It is also why the entry has to come from someone who has looked, and not from a form filled in from memory.

Around the Nature Coast, a lot of older block homes have had the roof covering replaced once or twice while the frame stayed original. That is why the attic matters. The covering tells you what is on top, and the framing tells you how it is held down.

If you already have shutters, impact windows or a hip roof, those are still features the inspection documents. The revision lists roof slope as an added item, so we record the slope along with the shape.

• ✓Shutters. Each opening is checked for the shutter type and whether it covers the whole opening. A shutter that protects the windows but not the garage door is recorded that way.
• ✓Impact windows and doors. The inspector looks for a rating marking on the glass or frame and notes what is and is not visible. Where a marking cannot be seen, the report says so.
• ✓Garage doors. Large doors are often the weak opening on a Florida home. The form asks about them directly, so we check the door, its rating and its tracks.
• ✓Roof shape. Hip, gable or flat is noted from the exterior and the attic framing, and the slope is documented where the form asks for it.

Whether an older report is accepted is the insurer's decision. Some carriers have said they will accept the earlier version of the form for a stated window, if nothing about the home changed. Others may want the current form. We cannot tell you which applies to you, and anyone who says they can without looking at your policy is guessing. Ask your agent or carrier, and ask them in writing if you can.

What we can tell you is what usually makes a report out of date, whatever the carrier says. These are the changes that tend to send people back for a new one.

• ✓A new roof. A replaced roof changes the covering, the deck attachment and often the secondary water resistance. The old report describes a roof that is gone.
• ✓New windows, doors or shutters. Anything added or removed changes the opening protection section.
• ✓Structural work. An addition, a screen room turned into a living space or a rebuilt garage changes what the form describes.
• ✓A switch in carrier. A new company may have its own preference on form version, so ask before you assume.

Buying a home? The seller's older report belongs to the seller's policy. Your insurer decides whether it works for yours. Ask your agent early in the inspection period, before you rely on it. A buyer who orders a full home inspection gets the wind mitigation inspection with it.