I decided to revisit this subject. I recently received my insurance bill from citizens and I started to go down over it to check all the categories and make sure I was properly rated. I am, but I searched the internet for a revised wind mitigation discount table to the one I obtained years ago and it is still a VERY closely guarded item and NO PLACE on the internet that I could find except RIGHT HERE.
Here’s the question I get all the time. Does it pay to install new hurricane shutters or impact rated windows. First, the market WILL pay a premium for a home with impact windows but this is about 60% of what you will spend to install them. The building code, and your insurance see impact windows and storm shutters as the same required impact resistance. So how much will I save on my insurance each year if I have a COMPLETE set of shutters and/or impact rated windows?
There’s some basic math involved here so get ready for it. First let’s show how the table from above is used. My annual premium this year, BEFORE all the sure charges like the catastrophe Fund Build-up, is $1,823. The next page notes a premium adjustment of 7,292 was applied to obtain this number. Thus, 7292+1823 = 9115, and this is the UNADJUSTED premium. We can see that for me my premium is 1823/9115 or 20% of the unadjusted premium. Now look at the table. At my house I have an FBC equivalent roof, type B roof deck attachment, single wrap wall to truss connectors, no SWR (secondary water resistance), and an “other” roof shape (Don’t even get me started) and all with Class A hurricane protection shutters. Looking at the table NOTED ABOVE we see the adjustment is 0.2, or 20%. Isn’t math grand.
OK, so what if I do not have hurricane shutters or my credit was removed because the system was not 100% coverage? If this credit was removed, as mine was during the depopulation period, then the mitigation discount goes from 0.2 to 0.42, a difference of 22%. For my house that would be 22% of 7,292 or $1,604. So if my home required all new shutters and one installed the Class A (High Velocity Hurricane Zone a/k/a Miami Dade) shutters as I did then each year I get $1,604 in premium savings. I spent a little under 2k on the materials and several weekends installing these but that was now 6 years ago. So I have saved $9,625 during that time by spending 2k.
The above math is very clear. Shutters are soooo worth it. But I also did things like added nails to my straps so that I got the discount for single wraps as opposed the clips. This saved me (0.22-0.2)*(7292) = ~146/year or ~875 over the last 6 years. Was this worth a day of my life crawling around my attic with a palm nailer adding nails to the straps? For me, I would say yes as it’s $146 I save every single year in savings or $875 in the last 6 years for about $150 and half a day of my life.
