First, who is allowed to sign it
Florida Statute 627.711(2) names who may complete the form: a licensed home inspector who has done at least three hours of hurricane mitigation training, a building code inspector, a general, building or residential contractor, a professional engineer, or an architect. The statute adds one more category — anyone else the insurer itself recognises as qualified.
A roofing license is not on that list. Roofing is its own contractor category in Florida, separate from general, building and residential, so we do not perform or sign wind mitigation inspections. A roofer who offers to is either subcontracting it, holds a second license, or is confused about their own.
The insurer's discretion is the part worth understanding. Your carrier could accept someone outside the named list, but that is the carrier's call and not the roofer's. If you rely on a roofer's assurance and the carrier disagrees, you have paid for a form that does not count.
What a roofer can genuinely do is the work the form measures, and give you what we find in writing so the person who does sign it is not starting from nothing.
A roofing license does not by itself let anyone sign a wind mitigation form. If a roofer offers to, ask which other license they hold.
What the form records about the roof
Roof covering — what is up there and whether it meets the code in force. This is the item most directly changed by a replacement.
Roof deck attachment — how the decking is fastened to the trusses. Nail size and spacing matter here, and it is not something you can see once the covering is on.
Roof-to-wall attachment — whether the roof is held to the walls by toe nails, clips, single wraps or double wraps. This is usually the single biggest line on the form.
Roof geometry — the shape. A hip roof behaves differently in wind than a gable, and the form records which you have.
Secondary water resistance — whether there is a sealed barrier under the covering so that water cannot get in if the covering comes off. It is either there or it is not, and it is installed during a replacement.
Why the timing matters so much
Deck attachment, roof-to-wall attachment and secondary water resistance are all decided while the roof is open. Once the new covering is down, changing any of them means taking it off again.
So the conversation to have with a roofer is before the job, not after the inspector arrives. Ask what is going on the deck, how it is being fastened, and whether a secondary water barrier is included in the scope you are being quoted.
We will put that in writing as part of the estimate. What we will not do is tell you what credits you will receive — that is between your inspector, your carrier and the form.
What we will not tell you
We will not quote you a discount. Anyone who tells you a specific percentage before an inspector has been on the roof is guessing, and the number depends on your carrier and your policy, not on us.
We will not tell you your roof will pass. We will tell you what is up there, what condition it is in, and what a replacement would change — and we will be straight when the honest answer is that the roof is fine and you do not need us.