If you live in an area where hurricane damage is a possibility, chances are your homeowner’s insurance has a windstorm coverage section that affects both the extent of coverage and the premium. You want to make sure your home is covered in the event of wind damage due to a hurricane, but you also want to ensure that your premium isn’t extremely high. One way to reduce the windstorm portion of your homeowner’s insurance premium is to have a wind mitigation inspection performed.
Windstorm Insurance Discounts
There are several areas in your home that can contribute to a discount in your windstorm insurance premium. Of course, ultimately the cost of the premium is determined by your insurance company, but you can do a few things to encourage your provider to give you a discount. Some factors of your premium are things you cannot control, such as the location of your property and its value. However, the more wind resistant features you have in your home, the higher your potential discount could be. Having a wind mitigation inspection performed can give you a good idea of what protections your home has against wind damage.
What an Inspection Covers
There are seven items that are reviewed by an inspector that is performing a wind mitigation inspection. The items include if your entire home was built to the 2001 building code, if your roof was installed to 2001 building code or newer, the nailing pattern of the roof deck, the roof to wall attachment points, the roof geometry, if there is a secondary water resistance, and if there is acceptable opening protection (wood panels or hurricane shutters.) The majority of people do not receive all the credits, but with just one or two good credits it may still save you a lot of money on your insurance. It can also tell you where you may be able to do some retrofits so you can get even more credits on your insurance and have your home even stronger than it was before.
