How Long Is a Wind Mitigation Report Good For? Florida's Five-Year Rule, Explained

How long is a wind mitigation report good for in Florida?

A wind mitigation report is good for up to five years in Florida. You do not have to dig through a statute to find that number. It is printed in the footer of every page of the Uniform Mitigation Verification Inspection Form, OIR-B1-1802, which says the form "is valid for up to five (5) years provided no material changes have been made to the structure or inaccuracies found on the form." The Office of Insurance Regulation gives homeowners the same rule on its wind mitigation resources page.

That one sentence holds three separate tests. The first is time: five years at the most. The second is the building: the house has to be the same one the inspector documented. The third is the paperwork itself: if an answer on the form turns out to be wrong, the report loses its standing even when nothing about the house has changed. A report that fails any of the three stops being proof your insurer can lean on.

Notice the words "up to". Five years is the longest a report can last, not a period every report is entitled to. Section 627.711 of the Florida Statutes told the state's Financial Services Commission to give guidance on how long inspection results stay valid, and the five-year statement on the form, which is adopted by rule, is the guidance homeowners actually see. Within that limit, each insurer decides whether a given report is acceptable for your policy, and the form warns that the insurer may ask more questions about the features it verifies.

What "valid" means for your premium

A valid report is one your agent can submit and your insurer can use when it prices the wind part of your policy. Citizens Property Insurance, for example, says its wind mitigation discounts apply only to the wind portion of the premium. When a report expires or stops matching the house, your hip roof and your straps do not disappear. The proof does. Without current proof on file, the insurer has nothing it can credit.

If you searched for how long a wind mitigation inspection lasts, you may have meant the visit rather than the paperwork. That answer is further down: most visits take under an hour.

When the five years start, and how to find the date

Citizens describes the rule as up to five years "from the date of the inspection form." On the current form, the inspection date sits near the top of page 1, above the owner's name and address, and the inspector's signature date is on the last page. The two are normally the same day or very close. Treat the inspection date as day one, and if the dates differ, ask your agent which one their insurer reads.

Then do the math against your renewal date, not against today. A report inspected in March 2022 reaches five years in March 2027. If your policy renews in May 2027, that report will already be past its limit when the renewal is priced, so the new inspection belongs on your calendar in early 2027, before the renewal paperwork starts.

Ask your agent one more question: how does your insurer handle a report that hits five years in the middle of a policy term? Companies treat that moment in their own way, and the answer tells you whether to book the next inspection before the anniversary of the report or before the renewal. Either way, a reminder set a few months ahead costs nothing and avoids a scramble.

Is my 2012 wind mitigation form still valid?

Florida's revised form, OIR-B1-1802 (Rev. 04/26), took effect on April 1, 2026, and Citizens told agents that any inspection conducted on or after that date has to be on the new version. Reports signed before then were completed on the previous version, Rev. 01/12, which asked seven questions instead of nine.

Those older reports did not all expire overnight. Citizens said it will keep accepting the Rev. 01/12 form if it was completed within five years before April 1, 2026 and no changes have been made to the structure, and that the new features on the form do not change the credits it applies at this time. Put plainly: at Citizens, a 2012-version report signed after April 1, 2021, on a house that has not changed, can still be submitted. A report signed before that date was already past five years when the new form arrived. And no old-version report can be stretched past the five-year limit printed on it.

Two cautions. First, Citizens warned agents that performance violations may be issued for submitting an older form, so a report written on the 2012 version for an inspection done after March 31, 2026 is a problem, not a shortcut. Second, private insurers write their own rules. Do not assume a private carrier follows the Citizens approach, especially when you are buying a house or changing companies. Your agent knows the current rule for each carrier they quote. If you need help reading an older report next to a new one, our guide to what each page of the report means lines the two versions up.

What makes a wind mitigation report expire early

The footer does not list what counts as a material change, but the purpose of the form makes the meaning practical: a change is material when it alters something the form records. Citizens gives two examples on its policyholder page, adding a room and replacing a roof. It adds that you may need a new form when you install new mitigation features you want credited, or when you have insurance claims for certain types of damage to the home.

Upgrades: the old report cannot see them

Strictly read, any material change ends the old form's validity, whether the change helps or hurts. In practice, the reason to replace a report after an upgrade is the upgrade itself. No insurer can credit impact windows, a rated garage door or new straps that appear nowhere on a signed form. A reroof is the most common example, because it can change the roof covering answer and, depending on the work, the deck attachment and the sealed roof deck answers too. Our guide to what a reroof can change on the form covers the permits and roofer paperwork that make those answers provable.

Openings work differently, because the form grades them by the weakest glazed opening on the house. Replacing six windows and leaving two old ones may not move the answer at all. Before you assume a window project will show up as a better rating, read how opening protection is graded on the form, including garage doors and skylights.

Retrofits in the attic follow the same logic. If a contractor adds connectors at the top of the walls, the old report still describes the original toe nails or clips. The 2026 form can credit purpose-made connectors when they are installed to the manufacturer's specifications and documented, and our article on roof-to-wall connections explains what that documentation looks like.

Changes that make the report overstate the house

Some changes quietly make an old report wrong in your favor, and those deserve more attention, not less. If you replace a rated front door with a decorative one that has no product approval, take down shutters and do not rehang them, or let a storm crack a window and leave it, the report now describes a better house than the one standing there. The current form adds level Z for damaged openings in need of repair or replacement, and it states that homes with openings needing replacement do not qualify for wind mitigation rate differentials. Fix the damage, then have the openings documented again.

Inaccuracies

The second way a report ends early has nothing to do with construction. If you learn that an answer is wrong, for example a garage door marked as rated with no label or approval to back it, the form no longer meets its own condition. Do not keep sending it. Ask the inspector who signed it to correct it or replace it, and never edit the PDF yourself.

Does a wind mitigation report transfer to a new owner?

The report describes a building, not a person, which is why buyers ask whether the seller's copy can follow the house. Whether it carries over is decided by the insurer that will write the buyer's policy.

Citizens has answered the question for its own agents. Its wind loss mitigation guide for the 2026 form says that if the property is a new purchase, the form may be in the name of, and signed by, the prior owner. So at Citizens, a seller's report can serve the buyer when it is still inside five years, on a version Citizens accepts and still accurate. Private carriers decide for themselves, and some may prefer a fresh form in the new owner's name. Ask the agent who is quoting the policy before you rely on the seller's copy.

What a buyer should check in the seller's report

• The inspection date on page 1, and how many months remain before it reaches five years.
• The revision in the footer: Rev. 04/26, or Rev. 01/12 completed after April 1, 2021.
• Whether the roof, windows, doors or garage door changed after that date. Compare the report with the permit history and the seller's disclosure.
• Whether the photos clearly show the house you are buying, including additions and the garage door.
• How many answers read unknown or not verified. Documents you collect during the purchase may turn those into credited answers on a new form.
• The whole file: every page, the photos and both signatures. A summary sheet is not the report.

Buyers work against an inspection period and an insurance binder, so the order matters. Our guide to lining up insurance inspections before closing walks through that timeline. Sellers can help the deal along too: a current report, kept with its permits and photos, gives buyers' agents something real to quote from.

Where can I find my wind mitigation report?

The form's header tells owners to maintain a copy of the form and any documentation with the insurance policy. Few people do, and reports go missing through ordinary life: a new email address, a new agent, a move. Before paying for a new inspection, work through these places, roughly from fastest to slowest:

• Your own email. Search for "wind mitigation", "OIR-B1-1802", "uniform mitigation" or the name of the inspection company. Reports are usually sent as a single PDF.
• Your insurance agent. The agent submitted the report, so a copy is often in your file at the agency.
• Your insurer. Check the documents area of your online account or ask customer service. If your policy shows wind mitigation credits, a form reached the company at some point.
• The inspection company. The company that signed it may be able to resend it if you give the address and the approximate date.
• The seller or previous owner. If you bought recently, ask through the real estate agents. The listing agent may still have it.
• The My Safe Florida Home portal. If your inspection was done through the state program, its inspectors upload their reports to the applicant portal, so log in there first.

One place that cannot help is the state. Under Rule 69O-170.0155, insurers send the information from the forms they receive to the Office of Insurance Regulation through its web portal, but they leave out the insured's name, phone numbers and email. That is regulatory data, not a copy you can download. When you do find your report, check the date and the revision before you send it anywhere.

How to get a wind mitigation report, and who does them

When no usable report exists, the answer is a new inspection. Section 627.711(2) lists who can sign the form, and insurers must accept a valid form from any of them: a licensed home inspector who has completed at least three hours of approved hurricane mitigation training and a proficiency exam, a certified building code inspector, a licensed general, building or residential contractor, a professional engineer, a professional architect, or anyone else the insurer recognizes as qualified. The signer has to inspect the house personally. Only licensed contractors and engineers may send a direct employee instead.

The same statute keeps referrals clean. An inspector may not offer an insurance agent or agency any compensation for sending a homeowner their way, and an agent may not accept it. Your agent can suggest names, but the choice of inspector is yours.

Is there such a thing as a wind mitigation certificate?

Many people search for a "wind mitigation certificate". What Florida insurers use is the signed verification form with its photos, not a certificate. The form even says its definitions serve inspection purposes only and do not certify any product or feature as hurricane protection. There is one real certificate that interacts with the form: a FORTIFIED Home Roof, Silver or Gold certificate can validate the answers on items 4 through 6 and 8 through 9 when a photocopy is attached.

How to book one

Have the address, the year the house was built, your insurance deadline and any permits or older reports ready when you call. You get a firm price before anything is scheduled, and same- or next-day appointments are often available. If you want to know what the inspector will look at on each of the nine items, read how a wind mitigation inspection works, or see our wind mitigation inspection service for what is included across Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach.

How long does a wind mitigation inspection take?

Most wind mitigation inspections take under an hour on site. The inspector walks the outside, measures the roof, climbs into the attic, checks every opening and photographs each attribute the form asks to prove. Size matters less than access: a large, open house with a walk-in attic can go faster than a small one with a sealed hatch and twelve different windows.

These are the things that add time, and what you can do about each one:

How fast you get the report

Insurance reports are usually sent the same day as the visit, as a signed PDF with the photos attached. Full home inspection reports arrive within 24 hours. If your insurer also asks for a 4-point inspection on an older home, both can be done in the same visit, which takes longer than the wind inspection alone but saves a second appointment.

The credit takes longer than the report. Your agent has to submit it, and the insurer has to review it and update the policy before anything changes on your premium. Sending the report the day you receive it is the one part of that chain you control.

How to send your report and check that the credits were applied

A report saves nothing while it sits in your inbox. Citizens, for example, describes a simple chain: your inspector gives you the completed report, your agent submits it, and the company reviews it and applies the discounts that fit. This routine keeps it moving and catches problems early:

1. Send the complete file. Forward every page, every photo and any attachments in one email to your agent. If you bought the policy directly, ask the insurer where mitigation documents should go.
2. Get a submission date. Ask the agent to confirm when the report went to the insurer, so you know when to follow up.
3. Ask what was recorded. Insurers enter the answers into their own systems. Ask which answers were accepted and whether any was questioned. A mismatch is easiest to fix right away.
4. Read the updated policy documents. Look at the declarations page and the premium details for wind or hurricane mitigation credits. Insurers present them differently, so if you cannot tell whether anything changed, ask your agent to point to the line.
5. Compare with what your insurer offers. Since October 1, 2023, Florida law has required insurers to describe their hurricane mitigation discounts on their websites, and Section 627.711 requires a notice of available discounts when the policy is issued and at every renewal.
6. File it and set a reminder. Save the PDF with your policy documents, and put a date on your calendar a few months before the report turns five.

Ask your agent from what date a new credit applies. Insurers set their own rules on effective dates, and permits or paid receipts for an improvement can matter, so keep them with the report.

Can my insurer re-inspect or question the report?

Yes. Section 627.711 lets an insurer, at its own expense, require that a mitigation form be independently verified before it accepts the form as valid. The check can be done by an inspector, an inspection company or a third-party quality assurance provider. It is a normal part of the system and says nothing bad about your house.

Citizens explains the process to its policyholders. If it decides a verification inspection is needed, the inspection company contacts you directly to schedule it, and Citizens tells your agent what was found and how it affects the policy. If you believe the verification findings are wrong, your agent should submit documentation that clearly shows why the discrepancy is inaccurate. Your own permits, product approvals and the photos in your original report are exactly that kind of documentation.

The statute also builds in an exception for Citizens. A form signed by an authorized inspector and reviewed and verified by a quality assurance program approved by Citizens, before it is submitted, is not subject to independent verification, and the property is not subject to reinspection by Citizens during the term stated on the form, unless the structure changes materially. Even then, the five-year limit and the material-change condition still apply.

Why accuracy protects you

A report that says unknown when the proof was missing holds up when someone checks it. One that rounds an answer up does not, and the consequences fall on everyone involved. Section 627.711 treats a form that falsely claims a feature, or contains errors caused by gross negligence, as misconduct by the inspector, and knowingly providing a false form to obtain a discount you are not entitled to is a first-degree misdemeanor. We document what the evidence supports and tell you what paperwork could change an answer.

Renewals, new insurers and shopping for quotes

A wind mitigation report is not tied to one company. The form is uniform across Florida, so the same report can follow you when you shop at renewal or move to a new carrier, as long as it is within five years, the house has not changed and the new company accepts that version. Page 1 will still show your old insurer and policy number. Ask the new agent whether their company wants it reissued with the current details.

Shopping is also a good time to compare the report with the house. If you added shutters or a rated garage door after the last inspection, a quote based on the old form will not reflect them. Document first, then quote.

Keep in mind that the other insurance reports age much faster. A change of insurer is a new application, and a new company may ask for a 4-point on an older home. The table shows how differently the common documents age.

When is a new wind mitigation inspection worth paying for?

A new report is worth it when it will document something the current one cannot, or when the current one is about to stop counting. Order one when any of these is true:

• Your report will be close to five years old at your next renewal.
• You replaced the roof, windows, entry doors, sliding doors, garage door or shutters, or added roof-to-wall connectors.
• You added a room or enclosed a porch, or otherwise changed the shape of the roof.
• A storm damaged openings or the roof and the repairs are finished.
• Your report has unknown answers and you have since found permits, product approvals or roofing contracts that could prove them.
• You are buying, and the seller's report is old, does not match the house, or is on a version your insurer will not take.
• Your insurer or agent asked for a new one.

If nothing has changed, the report is recent and on an accepted version, and your insurer has already taken it, a new inspection usually adds nothing. For Hollywood homes, our guide to when a wind mitigation inspection pays off sorts the decision by situation and by the age of the house. Before you pay for upgrades rather than paperwork, ask your agent what a specific answer change would be worth on your own policy. And if you are planning hurricane improvements on a homesteaded house, read about the state's My Safe Florida Home grants before you hire anyone, because the program does not pay for work started before a grant is approved.

If the real question from your insurer is the age of the roof rather than its wind rating, that is a different document. Our guide to how roof age affects Florida coverage explains the rules, and a roof condition inspection documents the remaining life of the covering.

Wind mitigation reports in South Florida

Where you live does not change the five-year rule, but it changes what tends to happen inside those five years. The Florida Building Code applies the High-Velocity Hurricane Zone only to Miami-Dade and Broward counties, so reports there answer the region item as HVHZ, while in Palm Beach County the region depends on the design wind speed at each address. A report from one county is not wrong in another; it simply has to describe the right house.

Salt air is the local factor that ages what the report describes. The form only credits clips and wraps that are free of visible severe corrosion, and metal near the coast corrodes faster than inland. A connector photographed in good shape years ago may not look the same today. That is not a reason to replace a valid report early, but if you notice rust on straps in the attic or on shutter hardware, have it looked at before a verification visit does it for you.

Hurricane season adds the other common reason reports end early in this region. After a storm, check windows, doors and shutters for cracks, bent tracks or failed seals, finish the repairs, and then update the report so it describes a house with every opening in good condition. Each city has its own mix of housing ages and permit records, and our local pages, starting with wind mitigation in Hollywood, explain what is typical.

Common mistakes about wind mitigation report dates

• "The five years restart every time I renew." They do not. The clock runs from the date of the inspection form, whatever happens with the policy.
• "My insurer accepted it once, so it is safe until year five." A later change to the house, a damaged opening or a verification visit that finds an error can end it sooner.
• "My new roof will update my discount automatically." The insurer only knows what a signed form tells it. A new roof needs a new form.
• "Reports on the 2012 form all expired on April 1, 2026." Not at Citizens, if the report was completed within five years before that date and the house has not changed. Other insurers decide for themselves.
• "The seller's report is automatically mine." The buyer's insurer decides. Citizens allows a form in the prior owner's name on a new purchase; other companies set their own rules.
• "The state keeps a copy I can request." Insurers send form data to the Office of Insurance Regulation without owner names or contact details. Your copy comes from you, your agent, your insurer or the inspector.

The bottom line

A Florida wind mitigation report is good for up to five years from the date on the form, and only while the house stays the way the inspector documented it and the answers stay accurate. A new roof, new openings, an addition, storm damage or an error ends it sooner, and every insurer keeps the right to decide whether a particular report works for your policy and to verify it. Know your inspection date, set a reminder before year five, update the report after any upgrade, and send the complete file to your agent the day you get it. If your report is missing, outdated or no longer matches your house in Broward, Miami-Dade or Palm Beach, call or text (954) 297-0317 or send us a request, and Peter Lemos, a Certified Master Inspector® and InterNACHI Certified Wind Mitigation Inspector, will give you a firm price before anything is scheduled. The signed form usually arrives the same day.

About the author

Peter Lemos, Certified Master Inspector®

Owner and lead inspector of Global Home Inspectors in Hollywood, FL. Peter holds InterNACHI certifications in wind mitigation, 4-point and mold inspection and has served Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties since 2008.