On Thursday, Florida Representative Griff Griffitts spoke before the Florida House Insurance and Banking Subcommittee about his new bill, HB 799, to amend an existing law that requires insurance companies to provide premium reductions when the homeowner implements certain construction materials into the home. While the current statute focuses on windows and hurricane straps, the bill amends the statute to provide premium reductions for homes with windup lift prevention.
Griffitts spoke about the importance of mitigating windup lift using unvented attics, and the benefits of spray foam insulation in this application.
A partial transcript is available below:
Rep. Griffitts: On October 10, 2018, my community was struck by Hurricane Michael. We saw the devastating effects of high level winds, with gusts recorded over 175mph. What we also noticed was the clear and positive benefits of the Florida building code. During high wind events, homes often fail when the roof deck separates from the house. Mitigating wind uplift is the key solution to increasing resiliency of homes in our coastal regions. Roof deck failure can be mitigated by preventing pressure to build within the attic space. Unvented attics provide this protection. Many structural retrofits, hurricane strapping, increased fastening, etc, are not possible without renovations to older homes. However, spray polyurethane foam can be added with minimal impact to the homeowner. Products like SPF can provide secondary structural benefits to the integrity of the house. These products adhere to the substrate and essentially glue the home together.
HB 799 as filed requires that residential rate fillings allow for appropriate discounts for the mitigation measures that reduce the potential windstorm losses in addition to those that reduce hurricane losses. It adds wind uplift prevention measures to the list of measures for which credits, rate differentials, and reductions in deductibles must be given in residential property insurance. This new addition to the PCS, requires flood coverage. It makes the technical changes to the statutory language establishing when certain citizen policy holders must obtain flood coverage so that citizens can implement the flood coverage requirements that this legislature passed in December of 2022. That, sir, is the bill. Thank you.
Rep. Steele: Actually, I used to own an older home and I went to get some mitigation straps but it was going to cost too much money at that time for me to afford. So we did do spray foam but they didn’t give us the discount. I think it’s an amazing thing. I did that to protect my family. I appreciate that. I’m going to be up on this bill. Thank you.
Rep. Woodson: Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for bringing this bill forward. This bill is a start in the right direction, and we know much our property, homeowners insurance is. We know how to stop it. It’s hot in the state of Florida and everybody is waiting to see when they get some relief. I think this bill might help to start seeing some changes in the homeowners’ property insurance, and I appreciate you doing the work and bringing this forward. So hopefully this is a good step in the right direction. So really, I appreciate it. Thank you so much.