The My Safe Florida Home Inspection: What to Expect and How to Prepare

September 22, 2026 · Impact Protection Program

The free inspection is the front door to My Safe Florida Home, and it is worth having even if you never take the grant: it produces the same Uniform Mitigation Verification Inspection Form (OIR-B1-1802) your insurer uses to price the wind portion of your premium. Here is exactly what happens at a My Safe Florida Home inspection, what the report means, and how to prepare so the inspector documents everything your home already has.

Who Does It and What It Costs

The inspection is performed by a program-authorized wind-mitigation inspector, scheduled through your account at mysafeflhome.com, at no cost to you. It is not performed by a contractor and nobody will try to sell you anything during it. Expect 45 minutes to an hour and a half on site depending on the size of the house and how easy the attic is to access.

The Seven Things the Inspector Documents

The 1802 form has seven line items, and every one of them is a potential insurance credit and a potential grant-funded upgrade:

1. Building code. When the home was permitted — before or after the 2002 Florida Building Code, and before or after the 2007 code. This is a records check, not something you can change.
2. Roof covering. What the roof is made of, when it was installed, and whether it meets current product-approval standards. The inspector will look for the permit date and may ask for your roofing paperwork.
3. Roof deck attachment. How the plywood is nailed to the trusses — nail size and spacing. This requires the inspector to get into the attic and photograph the nails coming through the deck.
4. Roof-to-wall attachment. Toe-nails, clips, single wraps or double wraps connecting the trusses to the walls. Also an attic photograph.
5. Roof geometry. Hip, gable or other. A hip roof (all sides sloping) earns a credit; it is measured from outside.
6. Secondary water resistance. Whether there is a sealed underlayment or peel-and-stick barrier beneath the roof covering. Usually verifiable only from the attic or from re-roof paperwork.
7. Opening protection. Whether every window, door, garage door and skylight is impact-rated or covered by rated shutters — and the inspector will check labels on the glass and look for shutter tracks and hardware. This is the line most Tampa Bay homes fail, and it is the one impact windows fix.

How to Prepare

• Clear the attic access. The deck-nailing and roof-to-wall photos are the difference between “unknown” and a credit. If the inspector cannot get in, those lines default to the worst rating.
• Gather roof paperwork. Permit, contractor invoice, product approval numbers if you have them. A roof installed in 2010 with no paperwork can be rated as if it were older.
• Find your window labels. Impact glass carries a permanent etched or printed label in a corner of the pane. If you already have some impact windows, know which ones so the inspector notes them.
• Get the shutters out. If you have rated panels or accordions, have them accessible and, ideally, mounted on at least one opening so the hardware and rating labels can be photographed. Panels in a garage box with no visible mounting hardware may not be credited.
• Have your insurance declarations page handy for the insured-value figure and to confirm the home is covered.

Reading the Report

Within roughly a week or two you receive the completed 1802 form plus a program summary listing which of the seven items are eligible improvements on your house. Typical Tampa Bay results for a 1960s–1990s home: roof covering older than the current code, deck attachment and roof-to-wall rated at the middle or bottom tier, no secondary water resistance, and no opening protection. That last line is where the grant most often goes, because a full impact-window-and-door package moves it from the bottom rating to the top in one project.

Two things the report is not: it is not a grant award, and it is not a 4-point inspection for insurance underwriting. The grant is a separate application you file once your priority group opens (see funding status); the 4-point is a different inspection some carriers require on older homes.

The All-Openings Rule

For opening protection to count — on the grant and on your insurance — every opening has to be protected: windows, entry doors, sliding doors, the garage door, skylights. One unprotected bathroom window drops the whole line to “none.” This is why the inspector counts openings and why a proper quote covers all of them; a partial package is the most common way homeowners spend money and get no credit. Mixing is fine — impact glass on the front and sides, rated shutters on a back porch — as long as nothing is left open.

After the Upgrades: The Final Inspection

Once grant-approved work is complete, a second program inspection documents the improvements, and that final 1802 is what you send to your insurer for the credit. It is also what triggers your reimbursement. Keep every product approval and permit; the final inspector will want them, and so will your carrier.

Related Reading

• Income limits and eligibility
• How to choose a contractor for the work
• How the 1802 form turns into an insurance discount
• Tampa Bay guide to the My Safe Florida Home program · Impact windows & doors · Impact windows in Brandon

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