In November of 2009 the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation published a request to amend Rule 690-170.0155 Forms in the Florida Administrative Weekly.  This rule was being amended to adopt a revised version of the OIR-B1-1655 “Notice of Premium Discounts for Hurricane Loss Mitigation”, as well as the OIR-B1-1802, “Uniform Mitigation Verification Inspection Form”.  On April 21, 2010 forms OIR-1B-1655 and OIR-1B-1802 were adopted and incorporated by reference into Rule 690-170.0155.

What are Forms OIR-1B-1655 and OIR-1B-1802? Section 627.711, Florida Statutes requires the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (FLOIR) to develop a form (OIR-1B-1655) to be used by insurers to provide policyholders information about available windstorm mitigation discounts. The tile of this form is “Notice of Premium Discounts for Hurricane Loss Mitigation”. For Form OIR-1B-1802, Section 627.711, Florida Statutes, requires the Office to develop a form to be used by home inspectors to verify the presence of windstorm-mitigation features on policyholder’s property so the insurer can calculate appropriate discounts. The tile of this form is “Uniform Mitigation Verification Inspection Form”.

What were the changes to the Notice of Premium Discounts for Hurricane Loss Mitigation? Because the free inspections and the grants offered by the My Safe Florida Home program are no longer available, the form is being revised to remove references to these programs.

What were the changes to the Uniform Mitigation Verification Inspection Form? This form was first developed in July 2007, and has been revised to use terminology commonly used in the construction industry in describing the construction features to be inspected. This form has also been revised to require the inspector and homeowner to verify the inspector actually conducted the inspection.

How has the form been revised? The form has expanded the descriptions of the construction features to be inspected, and in response to concerns about fraudulently completed forms, to require photographic documentation of certain construction features. The new form also requires the signatures of the homeowner, the inspector and the qualified person certifying the inspection.

Can anyone conduct the inspection? No, the new rule requires that a “Qualified Inspector” sign off on the inspection form and Section 671.711 of Florida Statutes defines a “Qualified Inspector” as one of the following:

Section 671.711 FS -
a) Hurricane mitigation inspector certified by the My Safe Florida Home Program
b) Building code inspector certified under Section 468.607, Florida Statutes
c) General, building or residential contractor licensed under Section 489.111, Florida Statutes
d) Professional architect licensed under Section 481.213, Florida Statutes
e) Professional engineer licensed under Section 471.015, Florida Statutes
f) Other individual or entity recognized by the insurer as possessing the necessary qualifications to properly complete this form pursuant to Section 627.711(2)(f), Florida Statutes

How does one obtain insurance credits? The responsibility to schedule, pay for, complete and return the form to the insurer has passed onto the policy holder by the insurer as stated in Rule 627.711:

627.711 Notice of premium discounts for hurricane loss mitigation; uniform mitigation verification inspection form -
(1) Using a form prescribed by the Office of Insurance Regulation, the insurer shall clearly notify the applicant or policyholder of any personal lines residential property insurance policy, at the time of the issuance of the policy and at each renewal, of the availability and the range of each premium discount, credit, other rate differential, or reduction in deductibles, and combinations of discounts, credits, rate differentials, or reductions in deductibles, for properties on which fixtures or construction techniques demonstrated to reduce the amount of loss in a windstorm can be or have been installed or implemented. The prescribed form shall describe generally what actions the policyholders may be able to take to reduce their windstorm premium. The prescribed form and a list of such ranges approved by the office for each insurer licensed in the state and providing such discounts, credits, other rate differentials, or reductions in deductibles for properties described in this subsection shall be available for electronic viewing and download from the Department of Financial Services' or the Office of Insurance Regulation's Internet website. The Financial Services Commission may adopt rules to implement this subsection.

Bracken Engineering is committed to assisting homeowners as well as the agents and insurance companies that provide them insurance.  We are qualified, per rule 627.711 of the Florida Statutes, to provide the inspections and sign off on the new Uniform Mitigation Verification Inspection Form.  If you have any questions or would like to schedule us to perform an inspection please contact us via email at coordinator@brackenengineering.com or contact our office toll free at (800) 971-7252.

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