by Michele Newbern Gillis
Staff Writer
Whoever said you can’t get something for nothing was wrong.
Michael Rowan of AmeriPro Home Inspection visited the Northeast Florida Association of Realtor Beaches Council meeting last month at the NEFAR Beaches office to talk about the My Safe Florida Home program, which offers eligible homeowners free wind inspections from qualified hurricane mitigation inspectors such as his company.
AmeriPro Home Inspection is the only home inspection company (out of 11 various companies) in the state registered as a qualified hurricane mitigation inspector.
“The focus of the My Safe Florida Home program is to educate homeowners on how they can harden their homes against hurricanes and also that homeowners can benefit from the premium discounts that insurance carriers have promised the state you can have,” said Rowan. “The state under the My Safe Florida Home program is doing 400,000 inspections for free for homeowners. There are no strings attached with this program. The state is going to inspect 10 percent of our housing stock, they don’t care who it is. There are 4.4 million single family homes in the state of Florida. They will inspect 10 percent of them, but after that it’s over.”
One of the benefits is identifying potential home insurance savings because many insurance companies provide discounts or credits for construction features proven to reduce damage from hurricanes. You must apply and obtain approval to receive the free inspection.
Rowan said the only qualification is that the structure is a single-family home. Mobile homes or manufactured homes, apartments, condominiums, multi-family dwellings and businesses are not eligible.
Realtors can register their seller’s listings provided the homeowner agrees to the inspection. The inspection report can then be passed on to the buyers.
“We have done thousands of inspections across the state and hundreds in Northeast Florida,” said Rowan. “People here don’t think they are going to get hurricanes, but what they don’t realize is that it is not about hurricanes, it’s about educating homeowners on how to better protect their homes.
“And also, the paperwork they give you, you can take it to your insurance company and actually get rebates on your insurance. The average rebate across the state is $154, but if you are on the ocean, it will be bigger.”
Floridians whose homes have undergone wind certification and hurricane mitigation inspections approved by the Department of Financial Services, according to the www.mysafefloridahome.com, “may be eligible to apply for matching grants up to $5,000. This is not an entitlement program. You must apply and obtain approval in order to receive the free inspection. Requesting or obtaining an inspection does not guarantee or automatically qualify you for a grant.”
“The other thing that the state has done is that they have $250,000 in matching grants,” said Rowan. “They cover three things: gable bracing, window shutters and garage doors. If your garage door is not rated, they will pay for half of the replacement costs. If you want to put shutters on, they’ll pay half of the replacement cost or if you want to brace your gable ends in your roof, they will help with that for up to $5,000. If you put those three elements in place, your windstorm insurance policy will half. The discounts are phenomenal, especially with window shutters.”
They are the three big failure items in the case of high winds.
“The insurance carrier already knows that if you have gable bracing, shutters and a rated garage door the likelihood of your home blowing away if minimal,” said Rowan.
If, for some reason, your client’s home is not eligible for the My Safe Florida Home program, but would like to schedule their own wind inspection, they can pay the $150 fee themselves and contact one of the wind inspection firms directly.
Visit www.mysafefloridahome.com for more information.