9 Florida Insurance Discounts Homeowners Qualify For and Never Ask About
A homeowner in Cape Coral replaces their roof, hangs a full set of shutters, and installs a water sensor by their water heater.
But they never call their insurance agent about any of it.
Florida’s insurers offer dollar-value credit for exactly these upgrades.
However, the credit only shows up on a bill after someone asks for it.
These are the Florida homeowners insurance discounts too many people already qualify for and never bring up.
Note: This is general information, not insurance advice. Coverage, discounts, and terms are subject to change, so check the specifics with your insurer or agent.
1. Hip Roof Discount
Florida’s wind mitigation inspection scores a roof’s shape as its own line item on the form.
A hip roof, the kind that slopes downward on all four sides instead of ending in a flat gable wall, is the shape inspectors want to see.
Security First Insurance, which carried more than 140,000 policies in force in early 2025, credits a documented hip roof with cutting the wind portion of a premium by close to 32%.
Nearly a third.
Florida law has required insurers to publish hurricane mitigation discounts online since October 2023.
Homeowners who already have a hip roof often never mention it because nobody explained the shape alone is worth asking about.
What Portion of the Bill Each Discount Touches
Florida’s homeowners insurance discounts split into two separate buckets on a bill.
Wind mitigation credits, like the hip roof and shutter credits in this article, apply only to the windstorm portion of the premium, not the whole bill.
A 32% cut to wind coverage trims the total bill by a smaller share, since wind is only one piece of what a Florida policy charges for.
Non-hurricane credits are a separate bucket, and some carriers cap how much of those can stack together.
People’s Trust Insurance caps its non-hurricane discounts, including the age and gated community credits below, at a combined 10%, no matter how many a homeowner qualifies for.
2. Roof-to-Wall Connection Credit
When Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, Florida’s state-run insurer of last resort, runs a wind mitigation inspection, it grades roof-to-wall attachment on a line that has nothing to do with the roof’s shape or covering.
Wind uplift pulls upward on a roof deck hard enough to pull straight nails loose in seconds.
Simple nails holding a roof to the walls earn nothing extra, but metal clips or wraps that lock the trusses down do.
That upgrade often happens during a re-roof, and the inspector who signs off on it rarely tells the homeowner to also ask their agent for this exact line.
Two different credits, one job.
3. Secondary Water Resistance
Florida’s wind mitigation form also credits a feature many homeowners have never heard of: Secondary water resistance.
It’s a self-adhesive membrane installed under the shingles, sealing the roof deck against wind-driven rain if the shingles ever peel back.
Security First Insurance lists it as its own discount category, apart from the roof covering or the shape.
Roofers install this layer on many modern re-roofs already.
It costs nothing extra.
But the credit for it only shows up if a homeowner tells their insurer it’s there.
4. Storm Shutters and Impact Windows
Florida homeowners who install storm shutters or impact-rated windows qualify for what carriers call the opening protection credit.
Citizens Property Insurance and Security First Insurance both offer it.
The catch trips people up constantly.
Every opening in the house, from windows and doors to skylights, has to carry protection, or the credit doesn’t apply at all.
A homeowner who shutters the bedroom windows but skips a side door with a glass pane can lose the whole credit, not just part of it.
One door voids it.
5. 2002 Building Code Credit
Florida rewrote its statewide building code after Hurricane Andrew, and homes built on or after January 1, 2002, meet the tougher standard automatically.
Citizens Property Insurance calls this the Florida Building Code Compliance discount, and an agent can apply it once a homeowner provides the home’s construction date, no wind mitigation inspection required.
Homes built earlier can still qualify.
Nobody explains that part.
A homeowner who re-roofed an older house to the 2001 code can claim the minimum version of the same credit, and Security First Insurance separately credits any newly built home under its own age-of-home category.
Owners of a 1990s house with a brand-new roof rarely connect the two and ask.
6. Monitored Alarm Credit
Florida insurers credit a home protected by a centrally monitored burglar or fire alarm, and Security First Insurance, Citizens Property Insurance, and People’s Trust Insurance all offer a version of it.
The alarm itself isn’t enough.
Every one of these carriers wants paperwork, an installation certificate, a monitoring contract, or a signed letter from the alarm company, sometimes dated within the past year.
Homeowners who installed a security system years ago and never sent that paperwork over are often sitting on a credit their file doesn’t show.
The alarm rings. The file stays empty.
7. Water Leak Sensor Credit
Florida’s home insurers have started crediting a newer safety feature: A water leak detection device.
Security First Insurance lists it among its discounts, once the homeowner documents the installation.
These sensors run under $100 at many hardware stores, and they send an alert the moment a pipe leaks or a water heater fails.
Insurers have an incentive to catch a leak early, before it turns into a bigger claim.
An easy ask.
A sensor already installed under a sink or by the water heater does nothing for the bill until someone claims the credit for it.
8. Age 55+ Discount
Florida homeowners 55 and older qualify for a discount at several major carriers, and many never mention their age to unlock it.
People’s Trust Insurance takes 5% off the non-hurricane portion of the bill for any named policyholder 55 or older.
Security First Insurance applies its version automatically, once a birthdate is on file.
That last part matters.
A policy opened years before a homeowner turned 55 doesn’t update on its own, so the date has to reach the file somehow, usually because the homeowner calls and says so.
9. Gated Community Discount
Florida homeowners behind a gate may already qualify for a discount without knowing the gate itself is the reason.
People’s Trust Insurance and Security First Insurance both credit a home inside a community protected by a 24-hour manned gate or a passkey entry.
A single-entry neighborhood with round-the-clock security patrol counts too.
Ask about the gate.
The discount runs 5% off the non-hurricane portion at People’s Trust.
Seasonal residents don’t qualify at either carrier, so a snowbird’s second home behind the same gate misses out.
Psst! Which of these discounts might your own Florida policy be missing? Search the table below and find out.
The State Will Help Pay for It
Florida runs a program that pays for some of the upgrades behind these discounts before a homeowner spends a dime out of pocket.
My Safe Florida Home, run by the state’s Department of Financial Services, gives eligible homeowners a free wind mitigation inspection.
No cost to ask.
Then it matches what a homeowner spends on the inspector’s recommended upgrades, two dollars for every one the homeowner puts in, up to $10,000.
Lawmakers moved more than $405 million in unused funds into the program this year to clear a backlog of homeowners still waiting on a grant.
Shutters, impact windows, and a sealed roof deck installed through the program qualify for the same insurance credits covered above.
The state helps pay for the upgrade first.
The same wind mitigation inspection report that unlocks the state’s matching grant is the paperwork an insurer needs on file to apply the credit.
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