Past a certain age, most Florida carriers will not quote a house without one. It is short, it is not a home inspection, and it is not the same document as a wind mitigation report, though the two are often ordered together and confused with each other.
The four points
The roof, its covering, its age and its remaining useful life. The electrical system, its capacity and its wiring type. The plumbing, its supply and drain materials and the age of the water heater. And the heating and cooling equipment, its age and whether it works.
The purpose is narrow and worth understanding: the carrier is not asking whether the house is nice, it is asking whether any of those four systems is likely to cause a claim in the near future. That is why an otherwise beautiful home can come back with a problem, and why a plain one can sail through.
What tends to come up
Older wiring types that insurers treat as a fire risk. Polybutylene supply plumbing, which many carriers will not accept at all. A water heater past its expected life. And a roof with fewer years left than the carrier’s threshold, which is the most common finding by a distance and the one most likely to end the conversation.
A finding is not always fatal. Some are conditions the carrier will accept if repaired within a set period after binding, and some can be placed with a different carrier who reads that risk differently. Knowing which is which is most of what an independent agency is for.
If you are buying
Order the four-point early, during the inspection period rather than after it. An insurance problem found while you can still negotiate is a price adjustment; the same problem found the week before closing is a scramble, and occasionally a house nobody will insure at a figure the buyer expected.
Send the report to us with the wind mitigation report and we will tell you what the market will do with it before you are committed.