What is a wind mitigation inspection and how much does it save?

A wind mitigation inspection is an inspection of nine specific wind-resistance features of your home, recorded on Florida form OIR-B1-1802 and submitted to your insurer. Under § 627.0629(1), Florida Statutes, every residential property insurance rate filing in Florida must include actuarially reasonable discounts, credits, or deductible reductions for those features — so the credits are not optional for the carrier to offer, and under § 627.711(2)(a) an insurer shall accept as valid a form signed by an authorized inspector.

How much it saves is a different question, and the honest answer has three parts. The credit amount is filed by each carrier individually, so there is no statewide number. As published by Citizens in “Protect Your Home and Save Money,” rev. 10/23, the credit applies only to the wind portion of the premium, not the whole policy. And the figure specific to a given house is already required to be in the policyholder’s hands: § 627.711(1) requires the insurer to send the “Notice of Premium Discounts for Hurricane Loss Mitigation” (form OIR-B1-1655) at issuance and at every renewal, listing the range of each discount available on that policy.

A source quoting a single percentage for Florida is generally quoting a carrier’s maximum, which is not the same thing as the result on any particular policy.

This page is indicative only. It is not a quote. Only the carrier can confirm what a mitigation credit is worth on your policy.

What the inspection actually checks

The current form is OIR-B1-1802 (Rev. 04/26), adopted by Rule 69O-170.0155, F.A.C. Every wind mitigation inspector in Florida has had to use it since April 1, 2026. It covers nine numbered items:

#	Item on the form	What is being recorded
1	Building Code	Which code was in force at original permit application — FBC 2001/2004, FBC 2007 or later, or SFBC-94 for the High-Velocity Hurricane Zone (Miami-Dade and Broward)
2	Region	Design windspeed band per ASCE 7-22, 700-year MRI, Risk Category 2: HVHZ, Region 1 (≥140 mph), Region 2 (130–139 mph), Region 3 (<130 mph)
3	Roof Slope	Whether at least two-thirds of the main roof area is ≥6:12 or <6:12
4	Roof Covering	Every covering type in use, with permit date or FBC/Miami-Dade product approval number, and whether each meets code
5	Roof Deck Attachment	The weakest deck fastening present
6	Roof-to-Wall Attachment	The weakest connection present — toenails, clips, single wraps, double wraps, structural
7	Roof Geometry	Hip, flat (5+ unit buildings), or other
8	Sealed Roof Deck / Secondary Water Resistance (SWR)	A supplemental water barrier — standard underlayment and hot-mopped felt do not qualify
9	Opening Protection	The weakest windborne-debris protection on any opening, glazed and non-glazed

Two structural points that, in our experience, decide most outcomes:

• Several categories are scored on the weakest example, not the average. Items 5, 6 and 9 all say so explicitly. One unprotected bathroom window or one toenailed truss sets the answer for the whole house.
• Proof is required per item. The form requires at least one photograph or document validating each attribute marked in questions 2 through 9. A FORTIFIED Home Roof, Silver, or Gold certificate may be used to validate items 4–6 and 8–9.

What changed on 1 April 2026

This is the part most published guidance has not caught up with. § 627.0629 required OIR to review the qualifying features by 1 January 2025 and every five years after. Applied Research Associates completed the 2024 Residential Wind-Loss Mitigation Study in June 2024, and the revised OIR-B1-1802 followed, effective 1 April 2026.

Change	Detail
Performance-based roof-to-wall retrofits now qualify	Clips, Single Wraps, and Double Wraps can be earned by a purpose-made connector or structural fastener with a substantiated allowable uplift capacity, installed per the manufacturer’s specification — it no longer has to physically wrap the truss
Named uplift thresholds	185 lb or greater (toenail-equivalent), 386 lb (Clips), 535 lb (Single Wraps), 891 lb (Double Wraps)
Site-specific documentation required for those retrofits	The performance-based routes explicitly require site-specific documentation, not just a photo
Region and Roof Slope added	Two new scored items, with Region keyed to ASCE 7-22 rather than an older standard
Spray foam recognised	As a roof deck attachment at 110 psf uplift resistance (FOS 1.5), and as a sealed roof deck
New “not installed as intended” answers	Item 6 adds answer I, Connection(s) not installed as intended, and item 9 adds level Z, Damaged openings

The disclosure forms have not been updated to match. As of 2026-08-22, OIR’s own form table still lists OIR-B1-1655 as “Revised February 2010 (updates pending)” and OIR-B1-1699/1700 — the forms showing the range of credits — as “Effective October 2006 (updates pending).” So the form that measures your house is current as of April 2026, while the published tables that describe what the features are worth are nearly twenty years old and openly flagged as pending revision. That is the single best reason not to trust any percentage you read, including one on this page.

Which features move premium most

Nobody can honestly give you a ranked percentage table that applies across carriers, because each carrier files its own credits. What is public is the direction the modelling runs. The Pinnacle actuarial review of the 2024 ARA study (July 2024) lists the loss-cost relationships the model was validated against:

Feature	Expected loss-cost relationship
Opening protection	Protected openings produce lower loss costs than unprotected
Roof-to-wall connection	Toenail > Clip > Wrap (toenail is worst)
Roof deck attachment	Deck A > Deck B > Deck C (A is weakest)
Roof geometry	Gable > Hip (gable is worse)
Secondary water protection	Without SWP > With SWP
Roof slope	Low slope > high slope
Stories	Two-story > one-story

Source: Pinnacle Actuarial Resources, Florida 2024 Residential Wind-Loss Mitigation Study — Actuarial Support, July 2024, “Output Validation.” Note the study also found real exceptions — metal panel roofs did not consistently beat shingle or tile, because metal performs better at low wind speeds and worse at high ones.

Citizens publishes which of its own discounts exist, and it is a shorter list than most people we speak to expect: opening protection devices, hip roof shape, roof-deck attachment, roof covering, roof-to-wall connection, secondary water resistance, and an FBC compliance discount for homes built on or after 1 January 2002. Citizens’ brochure states that these discounts apply only to the wind portion of the premium and are not offered for mobile homes. Source: Citizens, “Protect Your Home and Save Money,” rev. 10/23, retrieved 2026-08-22. This is Citizens’ published position on the date retrieved, not a description of what other carriers do.

Where the credit gets lost

Every one of these is a real answer box on the current form. In our experience they are often the difference between an inspection that changes a premium and one that does not. The right-hand column describes how the form scores the answer; what any carrier does with that score is set by its own filing.

Form answer	How the form scores it
Item 9, level Z — damaged openings	The form states: “Buildings with openings that need replacement do not qualify for wind mitigation rate differentials, regardless of the presence/absence of other features.” On that wording, a single broken window can cost the entire mitigation credit
Item 9, level N — unverified shutters	Shutters that appear to meet level A or B but have no documentation of compliance are scored as “Ordinary,” not as impact protection
Item 6, answer H — no attic access	The inspector cannot see the roof-to-wall connection, and the form gives no route to credit it
Item 5/6, answer G — unknown or unidentified	Same result on the form: the feature is not credited
Item 6, answer I — connection(s) not installed as intended	New in Rev. 04/26. A connector that is present but wrongly installed does not earn its category
Item 4.2, answers C/D — roof coverings not meeting FBC/MDC approval	One non-compliant covering on a multi-covering roof pulls down the roof covering answer
Item 4, “No Information Provided for Compliance”	Missing permit dates or product approval numbers are scored as unverified rather than compliant

Five years, unless something changes

The form is valid for up to five (5) years, provided no material changes have been made to the structure and no inaccuracies are found on the form. That sentence appears both on OIR’s consumer page and in the footer of every page of the adopted form itself.

Two consequences worth planning around:

1. A reroof, new windows, or a roof-to-wall retrofit changes the scored features. Where a scored feature has been improved, nothing requires waiting out the five years before a new inspection is done — and in our experience a fresh form is generally how the improvement gets recognised at all.
2. The documentation matters as much as the form. Where a roof-to-wall credit was earned through a performance-based retrofit, the connector may not be visible at the next inspection. In our experience the original site-specific documentation is often the only way a future inspector can verify it.

Who is allowed to sign it

Under § 627.711(2)(a), an insurer must accept a form signed by:

Authorized inspector	Statutory basis
Home inspector who has completed at least 3 hours of CILB-approved hurricane mitigation training and a proficiency exam	s. 468.8314
Building code inspector	s. 468.607
General, building, or residential contractor	s. 489.111
Professional engineer	s. 471.015
Professional architect	s. 481.213
Any other individual or entity the insurer recognises as qualified	s. 627.711(2)(a)6.

Three further rules that matter to homeowners:

• The inspection must be personal. Only licensees under s. 471.015 (engineers) and s. 489.111 (contractors) may send a direct employee, and they remain directly liable for that employee’s work (§ 627.711(3), (5)).
• The insurer may re-verify at its own expense (§ 627.711(9)). Forms submitted to Citizens through a Citizens-approved quality assurance program are exempt from independent verification and reinspection, absent material changes.
• Knowingly submitting a false form to obtain a discount is a first-degree misdemeanor (§ 627.711(8)), and a grossly negligent or fraudulent form exposes the inspector to Bureau of Insurance Fraud investigation and licensing discipline (§ 627.711(4)–(7)).

On referrals: § 627.711(6) prohibits an inspector from paying an insurance agency for a referral, and prohibits an agency from accepting one. Parish Insurance Agency does not accept compensation from inspectors.

What generally matters, and in what order

General information, not a recommendation about any particular property or policy.

1. The OIR-B1-1655 notice the carrier already sent is the closest thing to a real number. It arrives with the policy and at every renewal, and it lists the discount ranges available on that specific policy.
2. Carriers publish their own discounts. Since 1 October 2023, § 627.0629 has required every residential property insurer to publish its hurricane mitigation discounts on its site, reachable from the home page or the primary property-policyholder page.
3. A free inspection may be available before paying for one. The My Safe Florida Home program, administered by the Florida Department of Financial Services, offers a wind mitigation inspection to qualifying homeowners; OIR listed it as a current mitigation program as of 2026-08-22. Eligibility and open-application status are worth confirming directly at mysafeflhome.com.
4. The cheap “weakest link” items are generally cheaper to address before the inspection than after. Items 5, 6 and 9 are all scored on the weakest example present, and on the form’s own wording a damaged window or an undocumented shutter can cost the whole opening-protection credit.
5. A reroof is when the roof-to-wall question is easiest to answer. Under the Rev. 04/26 form, a documented connector meeting 535 lb or 891 lb allowable uplift can reach the Single Wrap or Double Wrap category without physically wrapping the truss. In our experience the site-specific documentation is far harder to reconstruct after the fact than to obtain at installation.
6. Inspector licences are checkable at MyFloridaLicense.com, as is whether the inspector is using the Rev. 04/26 form.

If you want help reading a mitigation form or an OIR-B1-1655 notice against what a carrier credits, call 727-290-4747. We will say when we think an inspection is unlikely to change a premium — that is a real outcome, and one worth hearing before the money is spent.