My Safe Florida Home Program: How the Free Inspection and Grants Work in 2026

What is the My Safe Florida Home program?

My Safe Florida Home is Florida's hurricane mitigation program for homeowners. Section 215.5586 of the Florida Statutes establishes it within the Department of Financial Services, which provides the fiscal oversight, contract management and strategic leadership. The program has two parts. The first is a free hurricane mitigation inspection that records the wind-resistant features a house already has and recommends improvements. The second is a grant that helps pay for some of those recommended improvements, such as impact windows and doors, a stronger roof deck attachment, better roof-to-wall connections or a secondary water barrier under a new roof.

The statute is careful about what the program is not. It says the section does not create an entitlement for property owners and does not obligate the state to fund inspections or retrofits. The program runs on annual legislative appropriations, and the department has to manage applications so that the funding requested does not exceed the money available. That single sentence explains most of what frustrates applicants: the program opens, fills, pauses and reopens with the budget.

The program is aimed at the house you live in. Condominium associations have a separate pilot program with its own website, MySafeFLCondo.com, which is outside the scope of this guide. If you own a condo unit and are wondering which inspections your own policy needs, see our guide to inspections for condo HO-6 policies.

Is My Safe Florida Home open in 2026?

As of early November 2026, the program's FAQ says applications are accepted on a phased schedule that begins with low-income applicants aged 60 or older, that specific dates are to be determined, and that homeowners should monitor MySafeFLHome.com for the current schedule. The home page still advertises free inspections and $10,000 grants. Treat the applicant portal as the final word on whether your group can apply today.

The rules themselves changed in 2026. Senate Bill 1452, approved by the Governor on June 26, 2026 as Chapter 2026-174, rewrote parts of Section 215.5586. Among the changes now in the statute:

• Attached homes. Inspection eligibility now covers a single-family unit on its own parcel that is either detached or attached, as long as an attached home is not more than three stories. The program's FAQ says the bill lets townhomes receive roof improvement grants like single-family homes.
• Roof coverings. The list of grant-eligible roof improvements now reads "installing secondary water resistance for roof and replacing the roof covering."
• More time to finish. A grant recipient has 18 months after the grant application is approved to finish construction and request the final inspection.
• A second inspection. An owner may apply for another program inspection if more than 24 months have passed since the last one and no grant was paid for it.
• Abandoned applications. The department must notify an applicant at least 5 business days before an application is treated as abandoned, and the applicant can respond with good cause.

Some program documents online were written for the 2025-26 cycle and may lag the statute in places. When a printed guide and the portal disagree, follow the portal and ask the program's call center, (561) 640-6734.

Who qualifies for the free wind mitigation inspection?

The free inspection has fewer conditions than the grant. Under the 2026 statute, you can apply for one when all of these are true:

• The home is a single-family unit on its own parcel of land, either detached or attached with no more than three stories.
• It is site-built, not a mobile or manufactured home.
• You live in it as your home.
• You have a homestead exemption on it under Chapter 196 of the Florida Statutes.

The program checks the homestead exemption and the property type against your county property appraiser's records, so look up your own parcel first. The 2025-26 homeowner's guide lists properties that cannot get a program inspection: retirement homes, mobile and manufactured homes, second homes, vacation homes and rental properties. Condominium units are also outside the homeowner program.

You do not have to qualify for a grant, or apply for one, to get the inspection. An owner of any income can apply, although lower-income owners are served first, as the priority section below explains.

Who qualifies for a My Safe Florida Home grant?

The grant adds several conditions on top of the inspection rules. Under Section 215.5586(2), as amended in 2026, all of these must be met:

• You are eligible for the program inspection.
• The home is a dwelling with an insured value of $700,000 or less. The program asks for a current declarations page that shows the dwelling value under Coverage A.
• The home had its initial inspection through the program within the 24 months before you apply for the grant.
• The home was built before January 1, 2008, as shown on the county property appraiser's website.
• You agree to a final inspection once the work is finished.
• You agree to give the department the information your insurer sends you about the discounts the improvements earned.
• You are a low-income or moderate-income person as defined in Section 420.0004.

Those income terms have legal definitions. A low-income household's total adjusted gross income does not exceed 80 percent of the median for households in the state, or in the metropolitan area or county where you live, whichever is greater. A moderate-income household's income is less than 120 percent of that same median. The program points applicants to the federal HUD income limits to see where they fall. Owners above the moderate-income line can still get the free inspection, but they cannot open a grant application.

Priority groups: who can apply first

When money is limited, the statute decides who goes first. Your first step in the portal is a short prioritization questionnaire that asks for your name, email, homesteaded address, phone number, the members of your household and household income. The answers place you in one of five groups, and the 2025-26 guide warns that once you are sorted into a group, you cannot be moved to another one. Answer carefully.

The statute sets the order and the spacing. Applications cannot open before a legislative appropriation takes effect, and then they open group by group:

The guide is blunt about what happens when funding runs out before your group's date: you will not be able to apply for an inspection or a grant in that cycle. That is why the first weeks after an opening matter so much, and why a homeowner in group 4 or 5 may wait through more than one budget year.

The free inspection: who does it and what you get

The program does not let you pick the inspector. The department contracts with wind certification entities, and an inspector from one of them is assigned to your home. The 2025-26 guide says you receive an email with the assigned inspector's name and contact details, and the inspector contacts you within seven days to schedule. Global Home Inspectors is not one of the program's inspection companies and does not take part in applications.

The law sets a high bar for those inspectors. They must be licensed or certified in one of five categories that mirror the wind mitigation form's own list (building code inspector, contractor, engineer, architect, or home inspector with hurricane mitigation training and a proficiency exam), pass drug testing and a background screening, and submit fingerprints for state and national criminal history checks. Each inspection company must run a quality assurance program that includes reinspections, and the department keeps a public list of authorized inspectors.

What the inspection report contains

The statute requires the initial inspection to include a report of the results with recommended improvements, a range of cost estimates for those improvements, and information about estimated premium discounts tied to your current features and the recommended work. The 2025-26 guide describes the report in five parts: an introduction, recommended improvements, improvement cost estimates, a summary of form OIR-B1-1802, and attachments that include the completed OIR-B1-1802 and the inspection photographs. The inspector uploads it to your applicant portal, and the guide says you should get an email within 14 days of the inspection.

The OIR-B1-1802 in that report is the same Uniform Mitigation Verification Inspection Form insurers use statewide, so it documents the same items any wind mitigation inspection covers: nine on the version required since April 1, 2026. If you want to understand what the inspector checks, read how a wind mitigation inspection works, and for help with the letters and boxes on the form itself, our guide to reading a wind mitigation report translates each answer.

Why some houses get no recommendations

The guide makes a point that surprises people: program inspections are not condition inspections. They record whether hurricane-resistant features are present, not whether the house is worn. An aging home that already has rated shutters, adequate deck nailing and wrapped connections may receive no recommended improvements, and without a recommendation there is nothing for a grant to pay for. A full home inspection is a different report that looks at condition, and it has nothing to do with the program.

How much is the My Safe Florida Home grant?

The cap is $10,000 from the state. How you reach it depends on which of the two grant types you qualify for.

Matching grants

Section 215.5586 requires grants to be matched at $1 from the applicant for every $2 from the state, up to a maximum state contribution of $10,000 toward the actual cost of the project. Put another way, the program reimburses two-thirds of the cost of the approved work until the state's share hits the $10,000 maximum. You pay the rest. The program's guide uses these examples:

• A $9,000 project: the program reimburses $6,000 and $3,000 is the owner's share.
• A $15,000 project: the program reimburses $10,000 and $5,000 is the owner's share.
• A $20,000 project: the state's share stops at $10,000 and the owner covers the other half.

Matching grants work as reimbursement. You pay the contractor, then submit a paid-in-full invoice with your draw request, and approved payments arrive as a check by mail.

Low-income grants

Owners who meet the low-income definition can receive up to $10,000 with no matching amount. The guide says a paid-in-full invoice is not required for this grant type, the payment goes directly to the applicant, and the applicant is responsible for paying the contractor. The program does not deal with the contractor on your behalf in either case.

Each applicant can receive one grant disbursement and one final inspection. Before you size a project, get written bids and ask your insurance agent how your premium would change if the recommended items were done, so you know what you are buying.

What the grant pays for

The statute limits grants to improvements that the initial inspection recommends. There are two families of them:

• Opening protection: exterior doors, garage doors, windows and skylights.
• Roof improvements: reinforcing roof-to-wall connections, improving the strength of roof deck attachment, and installing secondary water resistance for the roof together with replacing the roof covering.

Two rules control what actually gets paid. First, only improvements recommended in the initial inspection report and observed in the final inspection report qualify. Second, no other construction is eligible, however useful it may be. The guide adds a rule that catches people: the grant cannot swap one type of opening protection for another. If the house already has compliant hurricane shutters, a request to be reimbursed for impact windows on those same openings will be denied.

Openings: the weakest one still sets the insurance answer

The statute lets the department require improvements to all openings as a condition of reimbursement, while the 2025-26 guide says applicants could pick specific recommended openings. Whatever the program requires of you, remember how insurers read the form: the opening protection answer is set by the weakest glazed opening on the house. Upgrading most windows and leaving one unprotected may satisfy the grant and still leave your insurance answer unchanged. The guide also tells applicants to ask their insurer whether an A1, A2 or A3 rating is needed for a discount. Our article on how openings are rated on the wind form explains those levels.

Roof-to-wall, deck attachment and the water barrier

Roof-to-wall upgrades add or improve the metal connections that tie trusses or rafters to the walls, and the form credits them only when they meet its definitions and are documented. Our guide to hurricane straps and roof-to-wall attachment shows what inspectors look for. Deck attachment and secondary water resistance are usually done during a reroof, when the deck is exposed, which is why the 2026 change pairing the water barrier with a new roof covering matters. Read what a new roof can change on your wind mitigation form before you sign a roofing contract, and ask the roofer to put the underlayment method and nailing pattern in writing.

My Safe Florida Home step by step

The program's own checklist splits the process into an inspection phase and a grant phase. In order:

1. Create your account. Register on MySafeFLHome.com. Check the portal and your email often, because statuses change during the week and requests for information have deadlines.
2. Complete the prioritization questionnaire. It places you in a group from 1 to 5 based on age, household and income.
3. Wait for your group to open. You are notified by email when you can submit the inspection application.
4. Apply for the inspection. Confirm the home's details, your contact information and your availability. Once approved, an inspector is assigned to you.
5. Have the initial inspection. Be home, and make the attic, garage and every opening reachable.
6. Review the report. Read the recommended improvements and the attached OIR-B1-1802 before you talk to contractors.
7. Opt in and apply for the grant. You will need a current declarations page, the recommended improvements you plan to do, and the name and license number of your contractor.
8. Wait for approval. Do not pull permits or start work until the grant application is approved.
9. Complete the work. Your licensed contractor pulls the permits and does the recommended work, and you make sure the permits are closed.
10. Request the final inspection. You get one. A program inspector confirms what was installed.
11. Send the final report to your insurer. Ask for the premium discounts the new features earn.
12. Submit the draw request. Upload the contractor's invoice with the scope of work, proof of payment where required, and proof of the insurance discounts. Approved payments arrive by mail.

Two clocks run through this list. Under the statute, a request for more information must be answered within 60 days or the application is treated as abandoned. And once the grant is approved, you have 18 months to finish construction and request the final inspection, or the application is abandoned and the money goes back to the department.

Contractor rules: licenses, permits and timing

The program has stepped back from the contractor relationship. Its FAQ says it no longer keeps a list of authorized contractors and is not involved in contractor selection, construction or payment. Disputes with a contractor are between you and the contractor. That puts the screening on you.

• Use a Florida contractor whose license is certified or registered with the Department of Business and Professional Regulation and authorizes the specific work you are hiring for. Check it on MyFloridaLicense.com.
• Get bids from several contractors. The program's home page suggests at least three.
• Make sure each bid follows the recommended improvements in your report, opening by opening, and names the products and their Florida or Miami-Dade approvals.
• Confirm the contractor will pull every required local permit. The statute requires all program work to be permitted, inspected and done by properly licensed contractors.
• If a subcontractor will invoice you directly, know that the program holds subcontractors to the same requirements.
• Do not let anyone start, or pull a permit, before your grant application is approved. The guide says disbursement is denied if the permit was issued before approval or if construction was underway at the time of the initial inspection.

If you need to change contractors after approval, the guide says you can do so at the draw request stage. Using an unlicensed contractor, or skipping a recommended improvement you applied for, can cost you the reimbursement entirely.

After the final inspection: getting the insurance credit

The grant and the insurance credit are separate tracks that meet at the end. The program's checklist tells you to send the final inspection report to your insurance carrier and request the premium discount, and its FAQ lists proof of those discounts among the documents for the draw request. So the order is: final inspection, insurer, then reimbursement.

Your insurer is not bound by the program's estimates. Florida law requires insurers to build windstorm mitigation discounts into their rates and to accept the uniform form from a qualified inspector, but the credit for each answer comes from the company's own filed rates. Your agent submits the report, the insurer reviews it and decides what applies, and the insurer can have a mitigation form independently verified at its own expense. Ask your agent which answers were recorded and check the updated declarations page.

The new report also starts a new clock. A wind mitigation form is valid for up to five years as long as the structure does not change materially and the form stays accurate, so a later reroof, a new door or storm damage can mean another inspection. Our guide to how long a wind mitigation report stays valid explains when to replace it and how to keep the credits on your policy.

One more note from the statute: it states the Legislature's intent that these grants be treated as disaster-relief assistance under Section 139 of the Internal Revenue Code. Ask a tax professional how that applies to your situation.

Where a private wind mitigation inspection fits

A program inspection and a private wind mitigation inspection end in the same state form, but they serve different purposes, and one cannot stand in for the other. The program FAQ says plainly that you cannot use your own inspector for program inspections: grant recommendations must come from the program's initial inspection. A private report, on the other hand, is something you can order any time, for your insurance, whether or not the program is open.

A private inspection makes sense in these situations:

• You do not qualify. Owners of rentals, second homes and homes without a homestead exemption, or households above the moderate-income line, can still have existing features documented for credits.
• The program is closed or your group has not opened. Waiting months with no report on file means your insurer has nothing to credit in the meantime.
• You upgraded without a grant. Impact windows, a rated garage door or a new roof paid for on your own only count once a signed form documents them.
• Your report is aging. If your last form is near five years old, or the house changed after the program's final inspection, a new one keeps the credits current.
• You are buying a home. Buyers need reports during the inspection period, and the program only serves owners who already live in the home with a homestead exemption. Our guide to booking the insurance inspections before closing covers the timing.

If your improvements go through the program, its final inspection report is the document to send your insurer, and paying for a second report right away usually adds nothing. For anything outside the program, a private wind mitigation inspection documents the house on the same nine-item form, and a roof inspection answers a different question when your insurer is worried about the age or condition of the roof. To weigh the fee, see what drives inspection prices in Florida; we give a firm price by phone before anything is scheduled.

How to avoid My Safe Florida Home scams

A popular state grant attracts imitators. In June 2024, Florida's Chief Financial Officer warned homeowners about unlicensed sellers using flyers and solicitations that falsely claimed a connection to My Safe Florida Home and promised "free roofs and windows." Some homeowners who were told they would be signed up later learned they had not been approved for a grant and owed the full cost of the work. The protections are simple:

• Apply only through MySafeFLHome.com and its applicant portal. Nobody else submits your application for you.
• Remember that the program assigns its own inspectors. A company that knocks on your door claiming to be "the program inspector" before you have applied is a warning sign.
• The program does not keep a contractor list, so no contractor can be "program approved". Verify the license yourself.
• Priority is set by law, by income and age. No one can move you up the line for a fee.
• Be wary of anyone who wants to start work right away. Work begun before your grant approval is not reimbursed, and you would owe the whole bill.
• Never share portal login details with a contractor, and keep copies of everything you sign.
• If something feels wrong, call the program's call center at (561) 640-6734 before you sign anything.

My Safe Florida Home in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach

The program is statewide, but a few local facts shape how it plays out in South Florida. The built-before-2008 rule fits much of the region's housing, because many neighborhoods in all three counties were developed long before then. Homestead status and the year built are read from the county property appraiser's records, so look up your parcel on the Broward, Miami-Dade or Palm Beach property appraiser's site before you apply.

The building code adds a twist for the work itself. The Florida Building Code applies the High-Velocity Hurricane Zone to Miami-Dade and Broward only, so window, door and roofing work there is held to HVHZ requirements, while Palm Beach County sits outside that zone. Our guide to wind mitigation in Boca Raton shows how that plays out in one Palm Beach County city. Contractors working across county lines should know the difference, and your permit will be reviewed under the rules for your address. Coastal salt air also matters for roof-to-wall work, because corroded connectors are not credited on the form.

If you are not eligible for the program, or you want your current features documented while you wait, private inspections work the same way across the region. Our local pages explain what is typical city by city, starting with wind mitigation in Miami.

Mistakes that cost homeowners their grant

• "I'll start the windows now and apply later." Work started before grant approval, or a permit issued before approval, is not reimbursed.
• "My private wind mitigation report will work for the program." Grant recommendations must come from the program's own initial inspection by an assigned inspector.
• "The program will pick a contractor for me." It no longer keeps a list and is not involved in selection, construction or payment.
• "I'll swap my shutters for impact windows with the grant." The grant cannot exchange one type of opening protection for another.
• "I'll answer the questionnaire later and fix it then." Your group cannot be changed once you are sorted, and unanswered requests for information close applications after 60 days.
• "Once the work is done, a lower premium is certain." The insurer decides the credit from its own rates, and the opening protection answer still depends on the weakest opening.

The bottom line

My Safe Florida Home can pay a large share of hurricane upgrades for homesteaded, site-built single-family homes built before 2008, with the state covering two-thirds of the cost up to a $10,000 cap, or up to $10,000 with no match for low-income owners. It only works if you follow its order exactly: questionnaire, program inspection, grant approval, permitted work by a licensed contractor, one final inspection, the insurer, then the draw request. Applications open in phases as money allows, so watch MySafeFLHome.com and apply only there. Global Home Inspectors is not part of the program. If you need your home's current features documented for insurance, or upgrades you paid for yourself put on the form, call or text (954) 297-0317 or send us a request for a firm price, anywhere in Broward, Miami-Dade or Palm Beach.

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.