Florida officials are hoping to roll out a program to encourage residents to retrofit their homes against future hurricane damage in a bid to reduce property insurance claims and the litigation that often accompanies such claims.
In remarks to a Florida Chamber of Commerce event last week, state Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis said he was supporting legislation introduced this year that would provide a sales tax refund on building materials that homeowners purchase to better shield their homes from natural disasters.
““What we’re rolling out is our home-hardening initiative,” Patronis said. “If you have a house that, say, was not built with hurricane-impact windows and was not built with hurricane-impact doors … we’re giving you an incentive. The incentive we’ve got is if you make those replacements, the state is going to be willing to reimburse your sales tax.”
Such hardening improvements could also include improvements to better secure roofs to homes, according to Patronis. Fewer claims can be good news for the state’s legal environment, which has its share of bad adjusters, bad attorneys and bad contractors, he said.
Making such home improvements can pay off for homeowners through the sales tax reimbursement and subsequent lower property insurance rates that can be realized after residents file hurricane inspection data with insurers, according to Patronis.
The author of House Bill 863, which would provide for the sales tax benefit, also says such a program can have widespread benefits.
“Home and business owners who harden their properties for storms and other catastrophic events qualify for a higher safety rating on their structure, which may potentially reduce their property insurance premiums,” Rep. Nick DiCeglie (R-Indian Rocks Beach) said in an email to the Florida Record. “By providing a tax rebate for these improvements, we encourage better emergency preparedness, faster recovery and lower insurance costs. This helps all Floridians.”
HB 863 and its companion bill, SB 1250, would allow residents who make such improvements to their homes to file documents with the Department of Revenue to get the sales tax refund. It would allow residents to file such documents one time per fiscal year, and the bills would bar inspectors from engaging in misconduct.