Key takeaways
- Florida and Louisiana require insurers to file mitigation discounts. Neither sets a minimum — "actuarially reasonable" governs how a number is derived, not how large it is.
- Louisiana publishes the filings, and they show the same FORTIFIED Roof designation earning roughly 1% from one insurer and 54% from another.
- Most insurers apply the credit to the wind and hail portion of your premium, not the whole premium. A 30% discount is usually not 30% off your bill.
- The form records the weakest roof connection found, and rates opening protection as a whole — so one unprotected opening can cost you the credit for the house.
- In Louisiana the mandate binds admitted insurers only; surplus lines insurers are exempt, so the same work may earn nothing from a non-admitted policy.
Not sure what mitigation credits you are already getting? A licensed agent can read your policy and tell you what is on it.
Call [PENDING][PENDING]. Calls are answered by [PENDING], a licensed insurance agency (NPN [PENDING]). HomeCoverDesk is not affiliated with any insurer. Calls may be recorded or monitored for quality and training purposes. Our partner does not offer every insurer or every product available in your state.What a wind mitigation inspection is
It is a short, specific survey of how a house is likely to behave in high wind. Not a general home inspection, not a valuation, and not something an insurer sends someone to do at its own initiative — you commission it, you pay for it, and you hand the result to the insurer.
Florida's form is the one to understand even if you do not live there, because it is public, standardized and short, and other states' forms cover much the same ground. The current revision, 04/26, records nine things.
Check the revision code printed on your form before you read any guidance about it, including ours. Florida replaced this form with effect from 1 April 2026. The previous version, which stood for fourteen years, had seven items; the new one adds region and roof slope and renumbers everything after item 1. A great deal of published advice still refers to the old numbering, which now points at different features.
Two items are worth flagging before you read the list. Items 5 and 6 — roof deck attachment and roof-to-wall attachment — record the weakest connection the inspector finds, not the typical one. And item 9 rates opening protection as a whole, so a single unprotected window or an unrated garage door can pull down the rating for the entire house. Both are cases where a small, cheap defect costs a large credit.
| # | What it records | Why an insurer cares |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Building code compliance — whether the home was built to the Florida Building Code or the South Florida Building Code | A code-compliant build is a bundle of mitigation features at once, so it tends to be the single largest credit |
| 2 | Region (added in Rev. 04/26) | Locates the property for the wind-load assumptions the rest of the form is read against |
| 3 | Roof slope (added in Rev. 04/26) | Slope affects uplift and water shedding, and is now recorded in its own right |
| 4 | Roof covering — the material and its installation or approval date | Establishes whether the covering meets current product-approval standards, and how old it is |
| 5 | Roof deck attachment — the weakest method holding the sheathing to the trusses | Note the word weakest. The form records the worst connection found, not the average or the best |
| 6 | Roof-to-wall attachment — the weakest connection type between roof and wall structure | Clips, single wraps, double wraps. This is where roofs leave houses in high wind, and the credit differences are large. The 04/26 revision added performance-based retrofit options to these classifications |
| 7 | Roof geometry — hip, flat, or other | A hip roof sheds wind load better than a gable. It is also the one item on the list you are least likely to change |
| 8 | Sealed roof deck / secondary water resistance | Determines whether losing the covering means losing the interior too. Renamed in the 04/26 revision |
| 9 | Opening protection — windows, doors, skylights and garage doors against wind-borne debris | Rated as a whole. One unprotected opening can drop the rating for every opening in the house |
What the law actually guarantees you
In the states that mandate this, the mandate is real and it is worth knowing precisely, because it is narrower than people assume.
Florida requires that a residential property rate filing must include actuarially reasonable discounts, credits or other rate differentials for properties with windstorm mitigation features, and separately requires insurers to notify applicants and policyholders of the availability and range of each discount at issue and at renewal. Louisiana requires all admitted insurers to offer actuarially justified wind mitigation discounts, and under Act 533 to file a discount for FORTIFIED-standard construction, with the department publishing the approved discounts every year.
What none of that fixes is the amount. “Actuarially reasonable” and “actuarially justified” are standards for how a number is derived, not a floor under it. Louisiana's own report says as much: the law does not provide specific detail on how the discounts are to be applied.
And there is a gap worth noticing if you have been moved down the market. In Louisiana the mandate binds admitted insurers — surplus lines insurers are exempt. So the same mitigation work that earns a filed credit from a licensed insurer may earn nothing at all from a non-admitted one.
| State | What is required | What is NOT required |
|---|---|---|
| Florida | A residential property rate filing must include actuarially reasonable discounts, credits or other rate differentials for windstorm mitigation features. Insurers must also notify applicants and policyholders of the availability and range of each discount, at issue and at renewal | Any particular discount amount. “Actuarially reasonable” is the standard, and it is the insurer's filing that sets the number |
| Louisiana | All admitted insurers must offer actuarially justified wind mitigation discounts. Under Act 533, admitted insurers must also file a discount for structures built or retrofitted to the FORTIFIED standard, and the department publishes the approved discounts annually | A minimum percentage — the department's own report notes the law does not say how the discounts are to be applied. This is changing, and the change is not law yet. Proposed Regulation 136 (Fortify Homes Premium Discounts) would require discounts “in accordance with the rates published on the Department of Insurance's website”, replacing an earlier proposed twenty-to-thirty percent range. As of the LDI's summary report of 13 July 2026 it was still pending: the department stated it intended to submit the regulation for final publication in the August 2026 Louisiana Register, and it “shall become effective upon final publication”. We are not going to state a pending regulation as though it were in force — this site published a one-chamber bill draft as enacted law once, and an audit of this very page proposed doing it again here. Check the Register before relying on either position. And surplus lines insurers are outside the mandate: the department states plainly that they “are not required to offer these discounts”. There is no express carve-out naming them — the statute reaches insurers required to file rates with the commissioner, and non-admitted insurers are not |
| Kentucky | KRS 304.13-342, from HB 256 of 2024. An insurer writing wind or hail property coverage in Kentucky shall provide a discount or rate reduction on property certified to the IBHS FORTIFIED standards. In force for policies issued or renewed on or after 1 March 2026 | An amount. And the duty is conditional on two things: that the discount is actuarially justified, and that there is sufficient and credible evidence of cost savings attributable to the standards |
| Everywhere else | Nothing we can state generally. Several states have mitigation grant programs without a discount mandate, and several insurers offer credits with no mandate behind them | Your state insurance department is the authority on your state, and it is a short question to ask |
Wondering whether an inspection would pay for itself on your policy? A licensed agent can tell you what your insurer's schedule looks like.
Call [PENDING][PENDING]. Calls are answered by [PENDING], a licensed insurance agency (NPN [PENDING]). HomeCoverDesk is not affiliated with any insurer. Calls may be recorded or monitored for quality and training purposes. Our partner does not offer every insurer or every product available in your state.The discount is mandatory. The amount is not.
This is where almost everything written about wind mitigation goes wrong, and it is checkable rather than a matter of opinion, because Louisiana publishes the filings.
In the department's Act 533 report of 1 July 2026, the same IBHS FORTIFIED Roof designation — the identical piece of work, on the identical house — attracts a filed discount of around 1% from one insurer and around 54% from another in its highest zone. Not because one is generous, but because the credit falls out of each company's own rating model and territory structure.
Then the detail that changes the arithmetic entirely: most insurers apply the discount to the wind and hail portion of the premium rather than to the whole premium. A headline 30% mitigation discount is therefore usually not 30% off your bill. It is 30% off a slice of it, and how large that slice is depends on where you live.
None of this is a reason not to do it. It is a reason to ask two questions before you commission the inspection — what is your schedule of credits, and what do they apply to — and to treat any specific saving quoted by a website, including a figure quoted confidently, as fiction.
| What varies | What the regulator's published filings show |
|---|---|
| The insurer | Filed discounts for the same IBHS FORTIFIED Roof designation run from 0.9% at the low end to 54% at the top — and 54% appears in more than one insurer's filing, in particular zones |
| What the discount applies to | Most insurers apply it to the wind and hail portion of the premium, not to the whole premium. This is the single most misunderstood point on the subject: a 30% mitigation discount is usually not 30% off your bill |
| Where the property is | Discounts vary by territory and zone within the same insurer's filing |
| How the house is built | Masonry and frame construction are treated differently |
| Which designation | The department notes the enumerated discounts in that report are for the FORTIFIED Roof designation specifically, and that they are not the ones applicable to Silver or Gold |
| The insurer's own cap | The department's September 2025 wind mitigation document shows total-discount caps differing sharply between companies, and individual feature credits spanning ranges such as roughly 5–24% for opening protection |
Someone else may pay for the work
A growing number of states run programs that fund the retrofit itself rather than only rewarding it afterwards, typically to bring a roof up to the IBHS FORTIFIED standard.
We are giving you this as a survey rather than as a finding. The table below is drawn from a Brookings review published in March 2026, and we have not verified each program against its administrator. Programs of this kind open, close, run out of money and change eligibility rules constantly, and a lottery in one state is a first-come queue in another. Treat every line as a prompt to go and look, not as a statement about what is available to you today.
| State | Program | As reported |
|---|---|---|
| Alabama | Strengthen Alabama Homes | Grants covering retrofit costs up to $10,000, plus a separate tax credit |
| Florida | My Safe Florida Home | State covers part of the cost up to $10,000, with the homeowner contributing; the contribution is reported as waived for low-income households |
| Louisiana | Fortify Homes Program | Up to $10,000 to retrofit a roof to the FORTIFIED standard, with recipients selected by lottery |
| South Carolina | SC Safe Home | Reported at $3,000 to $7,500 depending on income tier and level of mitigation |
| North Carolina | Strengthen Your Roof / Strengthen Your Coastal Roof | Reported at up to $10,000 for beach communities and up to $6,000 further inland |
| Oklahoma | Strengthen Oklahoma Homes | Launched 2025; up to $10,000 in vulnerable communities |
| Kentucky | Strengthen Kentucky Homes | Reported as launching spring 2026; up to $10,000 for roof upgrades to IBHS standards |
| Minnesota | Strengthen Minnesota Homes | Reported as funded but not launched at the time of that survey |
How to actually get it
Nothing here is advice about your property and we have not seen your policy. What follows is the order the requirements above imply. A Louisiana department document from September 2025 put the typical cost of the survey itself at roughly $300 to $600, which is the number to weigh against whatever schedule of credits your insurer gives you in step one.
| Step | What to do | The point |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ask your insurer for its mitigation discount schedule | In Florida the insurer must tell you the availability and range of each discount at issue and renewal, and must publish hurricane mitigation discount information on its website. Elsewhere, ask anyway |
| 2 | Establish who is allowed to sign the form in your state | Florida permits six categories — home inspectors with hurricane mitigation training, building code inspectors, licensed contractors, professional engineers, architects, and anyone else the insurer recognizes. A form signed by someone outside that list is wasted money |
| 3 | Get the inspection before renewal, not after | Credits are applied at the filing level to your policy. Timing it to the renewal avoids arguing about mid-term adjustments |
| 4 | Read the form yourself before it is submitted | On the current 04/26 form, items 5 and 6 record the weakest connection found. If one section of the roof drags the rating down, that is worth knowing before you file, because it may be a cheap fix |
| 5 | Keep the form — it is an asset with a shelf life | Florida's form is valid for up to five years provided no material changes are made to the structure and no inaccuracies are found on the form. Subject to that, it goes with you to every quote you get in that window |
| 6 | Ask what the discount applies to | Whole premium or wind and hail portion. Ask before you decide whether the inspection has paid for itself |
Corrections to this page (1)
We publish these rather than editing quietly. Our corrections policy explains how we handle errors.
- — We cited Florida's Uniform Mitigation Verification Inspection Form at revision 01/12 and described seven inspection items, telling readers that items 3 and 4 record the weakest roof connection. Revision 04/26 has been mandatory since 1 April 2026: it carries nine items, and those are items 5 and 6. Anyone following the original instruction would have checked the wrong boxes.
Methodology and sources
Florida's requirements are cited to sections 627.0629 and 627.711 of the 2026 Florida Statutes, and the nine inspection items to the Office of Insurance Regulation's Uniform Mitigation Verification Inspection Form OIR-B1-1802, revision 04/26, incorporated by Rule 69O-170.0155, F.A.C. as amended effective 1 April 2026.
Correction, 23 August 2026. This page first published citing revision 01/12 and describing seven inspection items, and told readers that items 3 and 4 record the weakest roof connection. Florida replaced the form with effect from 1 April 2026: it carries nine items, and the weakest-connection items are 5 and 6. Anyone following the original instruction would have looked at the wrong boxes. The superseded revision is still served from an older path on the regulator's own site, which is how we picked it up — an explanation rather than an excuse, since we asserted a specific revision code as current without checking the rule that incorporates it.
Louisiana's are cited to the Department of Insurance's Wind Mitigation Discounts document of September 2025, issued under La. R.S. 22:1483, and to the department's Act 533 FORTIFIED discount report dated 1 July 2026.
Louisiana's report names each insurer and its filed discount. We have not reproduced that table. We do not rate, rank or compare insurers anywhere on this site, and republishing a regulator's carrier-by-carrier discount schedule would be a carrier comparison whatever we called it. We publish the spread instead, which carries the point — that the mandated discount has no mandated size — without us becoming something we tell you we are not.
The state grant programs are from a Brookings article of 3 March 2026 by Chase Parry and David Wessel. That is a think tank survey rather than a primary source, we have not checked each program against its administrator, and we say so in the table itself rather than in a footnote. Kentucky's discount requirement first appeared here on that survey's authority and is now cited to the statute itself, KRS 304.13-342, verified 23 August 2026.
We have not attempted a fifty-state table of mitigation discount mandates. Such a table would go out of date without any visible signal that it had, and we would rather name the three states we can cite and send you to your own insurance department. If you find an error, our corrections policy explains how we handle it.
Frequently asked questions
How much will a wind mitigation inspection save me?
Nobody can tell you before you get your insurer's schedule of credits, and a site that gives you a figure is guessing. Louisiana publishes what its admitted insurers have actually filed, and for the same FORTIFIED Roof designation the filed discounts run from roughly 1% to roughly 54% depending on the insurer, the zone and the construction type. Ask your insurer for its schedule first — in Florida it is required to tell you the range.
Is the discount applied to my whole premium?
Usually not. Louisiana's department reports that most insurers apply the credit to the wind and hail portion of the premium rather than the whole premium. That single detail explains most of the disappointment people describe after paying for an inspection, and it is worth asking about explicitly before you commission one.
Who is allowed to do the inspection?
It depends on the state. Florida's statute permits six categories: licensed home inspectors with at least three hours of hurricane mitigation training, certified building code inspectors, licensed general, building or residential contractors, licensed professional engineers, licensed architects, and anyone else the insurer recognizes as qualified. Louisiana's department describes building code officers, registered architects and engineers, and authorized third-party providers. A form signed by someone outside your state's list is money spent for nothing.
How long does the inspection last before I need another?
Florida's Uniform Mitigation Verification Inspection Form states that it is valid for up to five years provided no material changes have been made to the structure and no inaccuracies are found on the form. Subject to that, it is an asset rather than a one-off cost: it goes with you to every quote you get in that window, including quotes from insurers you have not approached yet.
Can the insurer reject my mitigation form?
It can verify it. Florida's rules allow an insurer to require that the form be independently verified, at the insurer's expense. The statute also creates an offense — but read the intent element, because an earlier version of this page left it out. Fla. Stat. § 627.711(8): a person who “knowingly provides or utters a false or fraudulent mitigation verification form with the intent to obtain or receive a discount on an insurance premium to which the individual or entity is not entitled commits a misdemeanor of the first degree”. An inaccurate form is not itself the offense. Licensing boards can separately fine and sanction inspectors, which is the reason to use someone properly qualified rather than whoever quotes lowest.
I have a gable roof and old windows. Is it worth doing at all?
Possibly, and the form is how you find out cheaply. Roof geometry is the item you are least able to change, but deck attachment, roof-to-wall attachment, secondary water resistance and opening protection are all things that can be improved. Because items 5 and 6 record the weakest connection found and item 9 rates openings as a whole, an inspection sometimes identifies one modest fix that moves a rating band.
Is there help paying for the work?
In several states, yes. Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Kentucky have all been reported to run programs funding mitigation retrofits, commonly to the IBHS FORTIFIED standard and commonly capped around $10,000. We have taken that from a published survey rather than from each administrator, and these programs change constantly — the program's own office is who can tell you whether it is open, what it pays, and whether you qualify.