What do home inspectors find in Central Florida?

What does a Florida home inspection actually cover?

Section 468.8311, Florida Statutes, defines home inspection services as a limited visual examination of the readily accessible installed systems and components of a home: the structure, the electrical system, the HVAC system, the roof covering, the plumbing system, interior components, exterior components, and site conditions that affect the structure. Every qualifier in that definition is load bearing. An inspector is not opening walls.

A Florida home inspector has needed a license from the Department of Business and Professional Regulation since July 1, 2010, and the license belongs to the individual rather than the company. Section 468.8319 bars an inspector from performing or offering repairs on a home the inspector or the inspector's company wrote a report on, and from inspecting any property in which either holds a financial or transfer interest.

What is a four-point inspection and why does the buyer's insurer want one?

A four-point inspection reports the age, type, and condition of the wiring, the heating and plumbing systems, and the roof. Citizens Property Insurance requires one on applications for properties more than 20 years old, and private carriers ask for the same four for the same reason. It is an underwriting document rather than a condition report, which is why a house can pass a general inspection and still stall here.

Citizens states that serious hazards or deficiencies, giving exposed wiring and active leaks or evidence of leaks as its examples, should be repaired before an application for coverage is submitted. That is the line that turns a two-sentence inspection note into a closing problem, because the buyer's binder waits on it.

How much does roof age matter in Florida?

Enough that the legislature wrote rules for it. Under section 627.7011, an insurer may not refuse to issue or refuse to renew a homeowner's policy on a residential structure with a roof less than 15 years old solely because of the age of the roof. Once a roof is at least 15 years old, the insurer has to let the homeowner obtain an inspection by an authorized inspector, at the homeowner's expense, before requiring replacement as a condition of issuing or renewing, and may not refuse solely on age when that inspection shows 5 years or more of useful life remaining.

Citizens adds thresholds of its own. It asks for documentation of at least five years of remaining useful life on roofs older than 25 years with soft coverings such as shingle, and older than 50 years with hard coverings such as tile or slate, and it requires proof of a full replacement when less than five years remain. A dated roof permit with its final inspection answers more of this than any sentence a seller can write into a listing.

Should I get a wind mitigation inspection before listing?

A wind mitigation inspection records the construction features that reduce windstorm damage on the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation's uniform mitigation verification form, OIR-B1-1802. Roof covering and the code it was installed under, roof deck attachment, roof-to-wall connection, roof geometry, the secondary water barrier, and opening protection are the lines the inspector fills in. A new version of the form took effect April 1, 2026.

Section 627.711 says insurers shall accept a form signed by one of the listed categories, which include a home inspector with at least three hours of hurricane mitigation training, a building code inspector, a general, building or residential contractor, a professional engineer, and an architect. The insurer may verify it independently at its own expense. The Office of Insurance Regulation says a completed form stays valid for five years when no material change is made to the structure and no inaccuracies are found.

What do Central Florida inspectors flag that others do not?

Wood-destroying organisms come first, and they get their own report. Florida rules put the inspection on FDACS form 13645, signed only by a licensed pest control operator, and it records the organism found, whether the infestation is live or previous, the areas that could not be inspected, and the conditions that invite the organisms back.

Radon is second. The Florida Department of Health reports that roughly one in five Florida residences has radon above the EPA action level, and it publishes county radon protection maps showing where added radon-resistant construction features are recommended. Osceola and Seminole counties have maps; Orange County does not. The department is explicit that the maps say nothing about whether an existing building has a problem, and that testing is the only reliable way to find out.

Sinkhole activity is third, and it carries a disclosure. Section 627.7073 requires a seller of real property on which a sinkhole claim was made by the seller and paid by the insurer to disclose to the buyer, before closing, that a claim was paid and whether the full amount of the proceeds was used to repair the damage.

Does the plumbing material change what a buyer can insure?

It can, and it is one of the four things the four-point form asks the inspector to name. Polybutylene supply line, the grey or blue plastic used through a long stretch of late twentieth century construction, is the material sellers hear about most. Citizens says dwellings 20 years old or newer with polybutylene piping may be eligible for coverage when there are no signs of leaks, unrepaired water damage, disrepair, or hazards, which is a narrower door than it sounds once the house is past that age.

None of this argues for replumbing a house before listing. It argues for knowing the answer before a buyer's inspector says it out loud, so the decision is yours rather than something you make inside a ten-day inspection period.