How Many Years Is Wind Mitigation Good For?
Typically five years, but some features may need re-inspection sooner. Your inspection report lists the exact expiration date.
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The five years applies to the inspection as a whole, but insurers often weight certain features more than others when pricing the discount. Roof age and roof covering tend to matter most, since shingles wear faster than the straps and connections holding the roof to the walls. If you've replaced your roof since the last inspection, a new one can qualify you for a better discount rather than just extending the old report. Check the inspection date on file and ask your insurer which features it still credits you for.
An old report may be costing you
If your wind mitigation inspection is nearing expiration or your roof has changed since it was done, your discount may not match what your house would qualify for now. A fresh quote shows where you stand.
What happens when the report expires
Once the five years runs out, the discount tied to your wind mitigation report doesn't disappear automatically, but your insurer will stop applying it at your next renewal unless you provide an updated inspection. Some insurers send a reminder before that happens. Many don't, so it falls on you to track the date and schedule a new inspection before the old one lapses.
A new inspection costs money, usually somewhere between a hundred and a few hundred dollars depending on who you hire and where you live. Most homeowners find it pays for itself quickly, since the discount on wind coverage is often larger than the inspection fee, especially on older homes near the coast. If your roof, windows or doors have been upgraded since the last report, the new inspection can also catch improvements the old one never accounted for.
Nothing requires you to get a new inspection the moment the old one expires. You can let it lapse and keep paying without the discount, or go years without one if you're not focused on cost. But if you're shopping for coverage or comparing insurers, an expired report puts you at a disadvantage, since some insurers will only honor a report that's current. An outdated one may be treated as if it never existed.
Hurricane-prone states are the ones that tend to track this closely, since wind mitigation credits were built around hurricane risk in the first place. If you live somewhere hail or straight-line wind is the bigger concern, your insurer may weight the report differently or care less about its age. Either way, your declarations page or your agent can tell you whether a credit is currently being applied and what the inspection on file shows.
Does every insurer require the same inspection?
No. Wind mitigation inspections follow a standard form, but what an insurer actually credits from that form varies quite a bit. One company might give a meaningful discount for hip roof shape. Another might barely weigh that and focus instead on roof-to-wall connections and opening protection like shutters or impact windows. Two insurers can look at the same report and still land on different prices.
Comparing quotes is where this shows up most, more than renewing with your current company. A report that earned a strong discount from one insurer might earn less from another, not because the inspection was wrong, but because the two companies build their pricing around different features. If you're shopping around, ask each insurer which parts of your report they credit rather than assuming the discount carries over evenly from one quote to the next.
The inspector doing the work matters too. Wind mitigation inspections in most states have to be done by a licensed contractor, building inspector, engineer, or someone else authorized under state law, and the form has to be filled out completely and accurately to hold up. An incomplete form, or one missing required photos, can get rejected by the insurer even if the house itself would have qualified for a full discount. If you're paying for an inspection, confirm upfront that whoever you hire is qualified to perform them and knows what your insurer expects to see.
The same report doesn't need to be redone for every new quote. A five-year-old inspection can usually be submitted to multiple insurers when you're comparing coverage, as long as it hasn't expired and the house hasn't changed since it was done. What changes is how each insurer reads it, not the report itself.
Check the date before you renew
Find the inspection date on your current report and compare it to your renewal date. If it's close to five years old, or your roof has changed since then, see what a new quote looks like now.
