Wind Mitigation public hearing at the Florida DOIR on December 21, 2009.

On December 21st once again the OIR (Office of Insurance Regulations) and special interest groups are attempting to make certain changes to the OIR-B1-1802 form (Uniform Wind Mitigation Form) during a hearing at 9:00 a.m. at 116 Larson Building, 200 East Gaines Street, Tallahassee, Florida. Certain interests have moved to intercept and preempt any and all required mitigation Inspections from the insurance companies and have the business driven directly to them. This will violate Florida citizen of their right to choose the qualified inspector of there choice.

I ask that you all to make the effort to be present at this public hearing. Just as we showed out by the hundreds for the recent home inspector licensing stakeholders meetings in Florida, we need to also attend this meeting. There is strength in numbers.

Early again, I will do my very best to be there Nick. This is nonsense. Only a hand full of special interest folks are racking the inspections. We need to take a peice of the pie. I seen the inspectors in action that perform WM and is quite alarming. They show up with thr form already filled out and spend 10 minutes on site for $75.00 a pop.

How was the meeting? To those gentlemen that attended. Thanks in advance for any updates…

The hearing for the proposed changes to the OIR forms B1 1802 and B1-1655 was held Monday in Tallahassee. The meeting was well attended by insurance industry professionals including representatives from Citizens, multiple other carriers, lobbyists for Florida Engineering Society, Insurance Trade Association, Garage door manufacturers, Hurricane Protection Association, individual inspectors-myself, Hose’ Uz, Larry Cerro, and a few others. After hearing everyone speak, it was obvious that there were many different interests present in the room. From what I gathered, the insurance industry representatives were mostly in favor of implementing the changes to the forms and the engineers and inspectors (the ones actually doing the work) were mostly against the changes to the form for varying reasons and agendas. One interesting note- the new form specifically identifies MSFH home certified inspectors as approved individuals who can complete the form. This was inserted into the form to comply with Florida Stautre 627.711. With that said, the MSFH program is not currently active and therefore (per the OIR) the credential should not be accepted as approved to sign the form. We shall see how long it takes for the insurance industry to start rejecting wind mits from MSFH inspectors. No decisions were made at the hearing. The OIR will take all comments into consideration and look at options before making a decision to go with the new form, do nothing, or start over.

Steve Taylor
Taylor Inspection Services, Inc.
Atlantic Beach Florida 32233
904-206-0370
www.taylorinspectionservices.com