The Call We Get Every Week
"My agent says I need a four point." That's the whole message, usually left on voicemail, usually from somebody in Palm Bay or West Melbourne who just went under contract on a house built in 1978.
The 4-point is almost never the whole story. Somewhere in that same email thread the agent probably also mentioned a wind mitigation form, and the two got flattened together into "the insurance inspection." They are not the same document, they are not looking at the same things, and skipping the second one has cost Brevard homeowners real money.
Here is the cleanest way to keep them straight:
A 4-point answers "will you insure this house?" A wind mitigation answers "what will you charge me for it?" The first protects the carrier. The second is the one that works for you.
What the 4-Point Is Actually For
Florida carriers generally want a 4-point once a house passes somewhere around twenty to thirty years old, and again at renewal on older policies. They are underwriting risk. Four systems, nothing else:
- Roof — covering, age, condition, remaining life
- Electrical — panel, service, branch wiring, hazards
- Plumbing — supply and drain material, leaks, shutoff
- HVAC — type, age, condition, last serviced
That's it. No windows, no structure, no appliances. It is a narrow document with a narrow purpose, and the carrier reads it looking for reasons to say no.
The findings that reliably cause trouble in Brevard housing stock are the same handful every time. Federal Pacific, Zinsco, Challenger, or Sylvania panels. Fuses where breakers should be. Aluminum branch wiring in a mid-seventies house. Polybutylene supply lines, which showed up in a lot of local construction between the late seventies and mid-nineties. And a roof with two or three years left in it.
Find any of those and the conversation shifts from "here's your policy" to "fix this first." A clean 4-point gets you insurable. It does not get you a nickel off the premium.
Where the Discounts Actually Live
The credits are on the other form. Florida law requires insurers writing residential property coverage to offer premium discounts for specific wind-resistant construction features, and the only way to claim them is a completed Uniform Mitigation Verification Inspection Form, OIR-B1-1802, signed by someone the state authorizes to sign it. You can read more about how property insurance is regulated here through the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation.
Seven things get documented:
- Building code compliance (year built, permit dates)
- Roof covering — material and code compliance
- Roof deck attachment — nail size and spacing
- Roof-to-wall connection — toe-nail, clip, or wrap
- Roof geometry — hip, gable, or mixed
- Secondary water resistance
- Opening protection — shutters and impact glass
Notice how many of those are the roof. Five of the seven, depending on how you count. That is not an accident. Wind gets into a house through the roof and through the openings, and the form is built around that reality.
If You Have a Newer Roof, This Is Not Optional
This is the part homeowners miss, and it is the reason we push it.
When a roof gets replaced under current code, several answers on that form can change at once. The covering is now permitted and code-compliant. The deck attachment gets brought up to current nailing requirements. Depending on how it was done, secondary water resistance may now be present where it wasn't before. If the house also has a hip roof — and a lot of the block ranches around Rockledge, Suntree, and Merritt Island do — that credit was always sitting there waiting to be documented.
None of it reaches your carrier automatically. There is no feed from the permit office to your insurer. Somebody has to go up there, verify it, photograph it, and put it on the state's form.
The expensive version of this mistake: homeowner spends $18,000 on a new roof, orders a 4-point because the carrier asked for one at renewal, and never updates the wind mitigation. The roof is now the single most credit-worthy thing about the house, and the insurer has no idea.
We have walked into that situation more than once. The fix costs $125 and takes under an hour.
Why We Bundle Them
Both inspections require the same two things: somebody on the roof, and somebody in the attic. Once a ladder is up and an inspector is crawling over the top plate looking at how the trusses are fastened, adding the other report costs time, not another trip.
- 4-point on its own — $150
- Wind mitigation on its own — $125
- Both together — $250
- Wind mitigation with a full home inspection — FREE
- Full home inspection — from $299
- Military & first responder discount available
If you're buying rather than renewing, look at that fourth line again. A full home inspection starts at $299 and currently includes the wind mitigation report at no charge. Add the 4-point to that for $75 and you have covered the entire insurance conversation plus an actual condition assessment of the house you're about to buy. Full pricing is on the rates page.
What We Can and Can't Tell You
We can tell you what your house has. We can document it accurately, photograph it, and hand your agent a form that is complete and defensible.
We cannot tell you what you'll save. Premiums may be reduced when qualifying features are documented, and Florida law requires carriers to offer discounts for them, but the amount is set by your carrier and your policy. Anybody who quotes you a guaranteed dollar figure over the phone, before seeing your roof, is making it up.
We also don't sell insurance and we don't do the repairs. If your 4-point comes back with a Federal Pacific panel on it, we'll tell you what it is and why carriers care. We have no stake in who replaces it.
The Short Version
Older house, carrier asking questions at renewal: you need the 4-point. Roof replaced in the last few years, impact windows added, or you've simply never had a wind mitigation done: you're leaving credits on the table. Most Brevard homes past twenty years old want both, which is why we price them together.
If you're not sure which applies, call and describe the house. It's a two-minute conversation and we'll tell you honestly if you only need one. Related reading: wind mitigation insurance discounts and 4-point vs full inspection.
Frequently Asked Questions
Book the $250 Combo
4-point and wind mitigation in a single visit, $250. Same or next-day scheduling across Brevard County, reports delivered within 24 hours.