When it comes to a storm, windows in your home can be vulnerable to potential risk. This is why it’s recommended to have hurricane shutters to protect your home, which is one of your biggest investments. Not only can hurricane shutters protect against loss of life and property damage at your home, but they can also help with lowering your insurance costs.
In Florida, homeowners’ insurance companies are required to offer discounts for wind mitigation. The requirements for coverage, as well as the discount amounts, differ among each company. It’s important to contact your insurance company to learn how much hurricane shutters can save you on insurance costs.
What Are Hurricane Shutters and Other Hurricane Protection?
Hurricane shutters are forms of covering that protect the vulnerable parts of a building, including doors, screened-in areas, and widows. Hurricane shutters can sometimes be called storm shutters, hurricane coverings, or hurricane protection. Some shutters can also be used for security reasons as well so they can be referred to as security shutters, but it’s important to note they all provide similar protection.
What Is a Wind Mitigation Inspection?
A wind mitigation inspection is likely needed to save money on your home insurance once you install hurricane shutters. Unlike other home inspections you may have, this one won’t be mandated by your lender and is optional, but it can result in savings. During the inspection, an inspector comes to the home and looks for specific factors that make the home more resistant in the event of a windstorm or hurricane. The inspection specifically looks at your home openings, such as windows and doors, as well as your roof. The inspector will examine these features including the protection of openings, secondary water resistance, roof covering, roof branching roof shape, roof-to-wall connections, and doors. The features are looked at and evaluated to see how wind resistant the home is with current features. All homes in Florida that were built after 2002 were constructed using certain safety codes that will likely mean you are already getting savings. If your roof hasn’t been replaced since 2002 but was still built after 1974, then you may still want a wind mitigation inspection since there could be some features that will qualify for discounts, depending on the construction.
The inspection doesn’t cost much on average, and if you have minimal wind mitigation features in your home, then the inspection can pay for itself within the first year. The credit will be good for five years, and after that time you will need to have a new inspection to see if you still qualify for credits.
How to Apply for Your Insurance Discount with Hurricane Shutters
The first step is to reach out to a qualified inspector to perform a get wind mitigation inspection on your home. Once you have that you’ll contact your agent and insurance company directly to find out what specific items and discounts are available to you.
You will want to verify the amount of discount for each item as it applies to your specific policy. For example, in your policy hurricane shutters may give you a 30% discount if your windstorm premium is $300 of the total $600 annual premium. This would mean you will get a $90 discount for your policy.
Which Hurricane Shutters Are the Best for Insurance Reasons?
This question can be hard to answer, and the best hurricane shutters for your property are going to depend on your budget and needs. Hurricane shutters can range drastically in terms of features, style, and price. Your needs will help determine which hurricane shutters will be the right choice. For example, if you are looking to improve the look of the home, then you may gravitate toward Bahama shutters. If you are hoping for easy installation, then you may want to look into the electric roll-down shutters. If you are shopping just based on price alone, then hurricane panels may be a budget-friendly option for you.
Other Home Insurance Discounts
Hurricane shutters are not the only way to improve your home to get an insurance discount.
Repairs: Hurricane shutters, along with other repairs, can lower the premiums. New washing machine hoses, adding a water leak detection system or a new roof are some other repairs, in addition to the hurricane shutters, that can make your home less likely to be damaged. While some of these changes seem small, they can add up. Not having hurricane shutters in a hurricane-prone area can mean higher premiums so getting them is worth the initial costs.
New Construction: Depending on when your home was built, you could get a discount because it means that everything should be in new shape to prevent an accident during a hurricane. This may also apply if your home was recently renovated.
For any newer construction (post 2004) your home here in Florida was built following the most recent hurricane protection code.
Wind Mitigation Discount: This is the most important discount when it comes to saving money by installing hurricane shutters. The discount comes after a certified inspection is done on the home. On average, wind mitigation discounts can save you up to 38% on premiums.
Contact Home Safety Solutions for the Right Hurricane Protection
Choosing the right hurricane shutters and hurricane protection can be overwhelming, especially if your insurance company doesn’t give a lot of guidelines about what you need. The experts at Home Safety Solutions are here to help choose the right hurricane protection for your space to not only get you a discount on insurance premiums but also ensure that your home will be protected during the next storm. Not only can you get help choosing the right hurricane protection, but you can also get proper installation so your hurricane protection will stand the test of time and keep you safe for years to come. Contact us today!