A metal roof does not earn a metal-specific wind mitigation insurance credit in Florida. Not a bonus, not a multiplier, not a line item. On form OIR-B1-1802, the Uniform Mitigation Verification Inspection Form that every Florida wind mitigation credit runs through, "Metal" is simply one of seven roof covering types an inspector can tick in section 4.1, sitting alongside asphalt/fiberglass shingle, concrete/clay tile, synthetic/composite tile, built up, membrane and other. Nothing on the form pays more for one than another. If a sales conversation depends on a homeowner believing that metal by itself buys a discount, it is built on something the form does not say. What the form rewards is documentation, and documentation is a problem a supplier can genuinely solve.
What the form actually asks about a roof covering
Section 4 has two parts, and both are about paperwork rather than material. Section 4.1 asks the inspector to select all roof covering types in use and, for each one, to record a permit application date, or an FBC or Miami-Dade product approval number, plus the year of original installation or replacement. There is a fourth column on that grid, and it is the one nobody wants checked: "No Information Provided for Compliance." Section 4.2 is where the credit is decided, and it is effectively pass/fail:
- Answer A: all roof coverings listed meet the FBC with an FBC or Miami-Dade product approval listing current at the time of installation, or have a roofing permit application date on or after 3/1/02, or the roof is original and built in 2004 or later.
- Answer B: the older pathway, including an HVHZ-only route for a permit application after 9/1/1994 and before 3/1/2002, or an original roof built in 1997 or later.
- Answer C: "One or more roof coverings do not meet the requirements of Answer 'A' or 'B.'" Answer D: none of them do.
Read answer C again, because it is the trap that costs homeowners money. The question is asked about the whole structure, not about the roof you just installed. A new standing seam roof on the main house plus a fifteen-year-old undocumented membrane roof over a rear addition still lands on C. That is how a qualifying job produces a non-qualifying form.
The form changes on April 1, 2026, and it asks for more
Rule 69O-170.0155, F.A.C. adopts OIR-B1-1802 (Rev. 04/26) with an effective date of April 1, 2026. The new version runs six pages against four for the one it replaces, and any inspection performed on or after that date will belong on it. A previously completed form is not voided by the change: the footer says the form "is valid for up to five (5) years provided no material changes have been made to the structure or inaccuracies found on the form."
Rev. 04/26 carries nine numbered sections. Three of them are new or reworked:
- Section 2, Region, is new. It places the home by design wind speed using ASCE 7-22, 700-year MRI, Risk Category 2, via ascehazardtool.org. The bands are HVHZ, Region 1 at 140 mph or greater, Region 2 at 130 to 139 mph, and Region 3 below 130 mph.
- Section 3, Roof Slope, is new: at or above 6:12, or below 6:12, judged on the slope covering at least two thirds of the main roof area.
- Section 8 is now titled Sealed Roof Deck/Secondary Water Resistance (SWR).
The practical change for a roofing contractor is in section 4. From April 1 the inspector will need a permit application date or a product approval number, plus the year of installation, for every covering in use. Five years after a reroof, the homeowner will not remember the year and will not have the approval number. Somebody has to have handed it to them.
Where a supplier is actually worth something
This is the honest version of the metal roofing insurance pitch, and it beats the false one. We do not sell a discount. We supply the Florida Product Approval documentation that lets a roof covering answer A instead of C.
Every panel we ship carries a Florida Product Approval number. On the standing seam line that is SL100 under FL41812.05-R1, SL150 under FL41812.02-R1, NS150 under FL41812.01-R1, M100 under FL41812.03-R1, M150 under FL46540.02-R0 in 24 gauge steel or FL46540.03-R0 in 0.032 inch aluminum, and NS100 under FL41812.04-R1 in 24 gauge or FL46540.01-R0 in 26 gauge. The exposed fastener profiles carry their own numbers in the FL24397, FL36968 and FL27567 families. Approvals get revised, so verify the current revision at floridabuilding.org before submittal rather than trusting a sales sheet. We keep the documents on the Florida product approval and installation instructions page, and the panel detail lives on each product page, for example SL150 1.5 inch snaplock standing seam.
Build the closeout packet into the job, not as a favor afterward:
- The permit number and the permit application date.
- The FL approval number and revision for the panel actually installed, with the front page of the approval.
- The year of installation, the panel profile, the gauge or alloy, and the finish.
- The underlayment used, and whether it was installed as a sealed roof deck.
That packet costs an hour, and it is what stands between a homeowner and answer C five years from now.
Who is allowed to sign the form
Page five of Rev. 04/26 lists who may certify a mitigation inspection: a home inspector under s. 468.8314 who has completed the required hurricane mitigation training and proficiency exam, a building code inspector under s. 468.607, a general, building or residential contractor under s. 489.111, a professional engineer under s. 471.015, an architect under s. 481.213, or another individual the insurer recognizes under s. 627.711(2).
A roofing contractor license is not on that list. That is worth knowing before offering to fill one out for a customer. The form also warns that a knowingly or grossly negligently false mitigation form is subject to investigation by the Bureau of Insurance Fraud, and that knowingly providing a false form to obtain a discount the person is not entitled to is a first degree misdemeanor under s. 627.711(7). Do not confuse this with the separate roof age inspection under F.S. 627.7011(5)(c), where a licensed roofing contractor does count as an authorized inspector.
The features that actually move the premium
The roof covering answer is one of four roof items on the form, and it is not the one with the most room to improve. The others are roof deck attachment (section 5), roof to wall attachment (section 6, where double wraps is the strongest answer), roof geometry (section 7, where a hip roof with no other shapes exceeding 10 percent of the roof perimeter is the strongest answer), and sealed roof deck or SWR (section 8).
Geometry cannot be changed. Deck attachment and SWR can, and a reroof is the only affordable moment, because the deck is exposed exactly once. Section 8 is specific about what does not count: "Standard underlayment or hot-mopped felts do not qualify as an SWR." If a homeowner wants that answer, the underlayment and sealed deck assembly has to be specified for it at the estimate stage, not discovered afterward.
Never quote a percentage, and never touch a deductible
The form assigns no credits at all. Its closing line reads: "The definitions on this form are for inspection purposes only and cannot be used to certify any product or construction feature as offering protection from hurricanes." The footer adds that "Some items listed may not qualify for a discount." Credits come from each insurer's filed rates under F.S. 627.0629, which requires a residential property rate filing to include "actuarially reasonable discounts, credits, or other rate differentials" for windstorm loss reduction features. Since October 1, 2023, each insurer must publish its hurricane mitigation discounts on its own website. Send the homeowner there.
We do not publish a percentage figure, because we could not find a current published discount table to source one to. The ranges that circulate on roofing blogs trace back to nothing we could verify, and quoting one sets an expectation the insurer never agreed to.
One more, and it is not optional. F.S. 489.147 prohibits offering a residential property owner a rebate, gift, gift card, cash, coupon, "waiver of any insurance deductible, or any other thing of value" in exchange for allowing a roof inspection or making an insurance claim. An unlicensed person who violates it may be fined up to $10,000 for each violation, and the statute states that it is insurance fraud punishable as a felony of the third degree for a contractor to knowingly or willfully pay, waive or rebate all or part of a deductible. There is no clever wording around it. Do not offer it, do not hint at it, and do not let a salesperson do it for you.
Two statutes worth knowing for the roof age conversation
Most calls that start with "my insurer is threatening to drop me" are really about roof age, not roof material. F.S. 627.7011(5)(b) says an insurer "may not refuse to issue or refuse to renew a homeowner's policy insuring a residential structure with a roof that is less than 15 years old solely because of the age of the roof." Subsection (5)(c) says that for a roof at least 15 years old, the insurer must allow a homeowner-paid inspection by an authorized inspector before requiring replacement, and may not refuse on age alone if that inspection shows five years or more of useful life remaining.
Separately, F.S. 627.701(10)(a)2. caps the roof deductible: it "may not exceed the lesser of 2 percent of the Coverage A limit of the policy or 50 percent of the cost to replace the roof." Homeowners rarely know either provision, and knowing them changes whether a reroof is urgent or merely worth planning. It is also the honest frame for metal: service life, wind performance and documentation, not a promised premium number.
If you are pricing a job around any of this, run the material through Instant Metal Quote so the panel, gauge and approval number on the estimate are the ones that end up in the closeout packet. For the state grant side of the same conversation, see our post on My Safe Florida Home and wind rated roofs. If you want a second set of eyes on a spec before plan review, talk to our sales team.
