In May, the Florida state Legislature passed a sweeping property insurance reform bill that resurrected the program. The Department of Financial Services opened the application portal on Monday.
All single-family homeowners can sign up for free wind mitigation home inspections. Some may also be eligible to receive matching grants of up to $10,000 for various home improvement projects. This includes upgrading doors, windows and garage doors, installing roof water barriers and reinforcing roof to wall connections.
To qualify:
- Homeowners must have a homestead exemption.
- The home must have an insured value of $500,000 or less.
- The home must have undergone an acceptable hurricane mitigation inspection after July 1, 2008.
- The home must be located in what the Florida Building Code refers to as the “wind-borne debris region.”
- The building permit application for the initial construction of the home must have been made before July 1, 2008.
- The homeowner must agree to make his or her home available for inspection once a mitigation project is completed.
DFS anticipates completing between 140,000 and 145,000 home inspections and awarding between 11,000 and 12,000 grants, according to a media release from the agency. Applications will be reviewed and approved in the order in which they are received until funding is exhausted
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