Naples, Bonita Springs Wind Mitigation Inspection Report and explanation.

First and foremost there is NO PASS or FAIL for the Wind Mitigation Report. It is just an evaluation as to the construction of the home to see if you qualify for insurance discounts. Just because you do not get every discount does not mean your house was built poorly or substandard. Your house passed the guidelines set by the state of Florida and the present jurisdiction your in. This form was compromised in 2012, so it did not exist when many of the houses were built, so the builder did not have this form when the houses were built so how could he maximize the discounts?

Once again there is NO PASS or FAIL. It's just an evaluation of what is present. It is NOT an INSPECTION report of this company. It is a report that was established by the Insurance Industry in Florida and we have very specific guidelines to follow and we are subject to have an inspector to follow up right behind us to ensure what we have reported is in fact the exact conditions that we reported.

OWNER INFORMATION - The heading is just the information that WE HAVE for the client. It may not be filled out fully, its because we do NOT HAVE the information. We have put in as much information as we have. Feel free to add information to this header.

#1 BUILDING CODE: For our area the only three last options are used. Options A and B are used for DADE COUNTY and BROWARD COUNTY.

For us, to determine the BUILDING code is was adhered to has nothing to do with the time it was build but the age of the PERMIT PULLED. So it would be possible for a home to final built in 2003 but not meet the 2001 building code.

We go to www.leepa.org and find the information and then report it accordingly. If we cannot find out, then it is plainly and properly marked E.

INSULATION, MOST OF THE ITEMS CANNOT BE INSPECTED AND VERIFIED. If you want a foam house to get an insurance inspection have the sheathing, 3 truss's and the wall attachments exposed for this to take place and a shiner (exposed) nail is present.

Measuring roof perimeter example

Information below was given to me by the one fo the States leading authority on Wind Mitigation Inspection and author of one of the largest text books on how to perform wind mitigations, John Shishilla.

Here is an example of measuring a home for a wind mitigation

The metal patio roof is not considered in the calculations because it is not structurally attached.

The roof perimeter is measured following the blue line

The non-hip roof is measured following the red line.

12 feet for non-hip divided by 166 feet for the perimeter is 7.2% non-hip. This is less than the 10% threshold on the new wind mitigation form, therefor this house would be classified as a hip roof on the new wind mitigation form.

Measuring and calculating hip and Non-hip roofs

February 5th, 2012 by John Shishilla in New Florida Wind Mitigation Form 1802 1/12 | No Comments »

Here is an example of a simple hip/non-hip calculation for the 2012 1802 form

To measure the perimeter:

45+24+10+12+15+12+20+24 = 162′

To measure the non-hip(flat, structurally attached patio)

12+15+12= 39′

39′ / 162′ = 24% = non-hip

Florida Re-inspection program

Many consumers may not realize but when a wind mitigation is done it is highly likely that an insurance company representative will come to their home and check the results. This is because when the wind mitigation programs started, inspectors had little training and less direction on how-to properly complete the forms. The other huge issue occurred when the industry allowed individuals(usually licensed contractors) to fill-out the form with NO training. This made the results of many of the inspections sided towards consumers. Insurance companies lost money because of undeserving discounts. Homeowners were lead to believe that their homes were better protected than they actually were. It is my belief that lack of training was the biggest culprit for allowing this to happen. This is why I wrote the InterNachi Wind Mitigation class.

Insurance companies quickly learned that they were loosing money and had to take actions. They of course raised rates and the re-inspection program began. The re-inspectors come to the home and redo the inspection. Most of the time using a different wind mitigation form with changed/updated standards. Then they reapply the credits based on their findings. Most consumers loose some of their credits if not all. Now we have created an atmosphere of inflated rates and credits with homeowners caught in-between.

The standards in the wind mitigation inspection process is forever evolving. Definitions, redefined and more and more proof required. I believe that an inspector should be required to show reasonable evidence to prove what he/she marks on the 1802 form. Inspectors have to be better trained on both sides and held accountable for their inspections.

The Florida’s wind mitigation form(1802) has changed several times over the last several years. This leaves consumers to have inspections and then have them re-inspected (possibly using different standards and definitions from the original inspection). After the re-inspection the rates usually go up and the consumer starts to look for insurance again. Then they need the newer wind mitigation form. They hire another inspector, get the new inspection on the new form. Then the re-inspection process starts over.

As an inspector I do not mind someone checking my work. I do have an issue when the re-inspection company says there is a “discrepancy” and it is based on a different form and different definition. I firmly believe they are doing this to make inspectors look bad and to capture the retail inspection market and keep their re-inspection market. I do not take this lightly, neither should any consumer. This is how the re-inspection companies make money, by creating more work and helping insurance companies remove discounts on policies. In many cases you can not compare one form to another. They should not be allowed to both sides of the inspections, they are only putting money in their own pocket, someone has to pay for all of those re-inspections. Of course when they do a retail inspection it is correct because, they are not being checked and they define the terms. Inspections should be done properly and checked for correctness. If it is believed to be improper is should be redone.

If you have a re-inspection that you do not agree with, send it to qa@honorconstruction.com along with the original inspection. The pictures must be included. We will give you our opinion on it and collect the data for future evidence.