F L O R I D A H O U S E O F R E P R E S E N T A T I V E S
HB 1143 2024
1 A bill to be entitled
2 An act relating to My Safe Florida Home Program;
3 amending s. 215.5586, F.S.; providing for home
4 inspections for flood damage under the My Safe Florida
5 Home Program; requiring the Department of Financial
6 Services to contract with flood certification entities
7 to provide mitigation inspections; providing
8 requirements for flood certification entities to
9 qualify for selection by the department; revising
10 requirements for wind certification entities to
11 qualify for selection by the department; revising the
12 purpose of the program mitigation grants; providing
13 requirements for flood mitigation grants; providing
14 details for the maximum state contribution to the
15 mitigation grants; authorizing flood mitigation
16 inspectors to participate as mitigation contractors
17 under the program under certain circumstances;
18 requiring matching fund grants to be made available to
19 certain entities for projects that reduce flood
20 damage; revising uses for hurricane mitigation grants;
21 providing uses for flood mitigation grants; revising
22 requirements for grants for townhouses; providing
23 requirements for grants for condominium units;
24 prohibiting the department from awarding mitigation
25 grants to homeowners under certain circumstances;
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26 authorizing education and outreach campaigns on flood
27 inspections and flood damage mitigation; providing
28 rulemaking authority; revising the department
29 inspector list to include flood mitigation inspectors
30 and flood mitigation inspections; providing
31 appropriations; providing an effective date.
32
33 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
34
35 Section 1. Section 215.5586, Florida Statutes, as amended
36 by section 5 of chapter 2023-349, Laws of Florida, is amended to
37 read:
38 215.5586 My Safe Florida Home Program.—There is
39 established within the Department of Financial Services the My
40 Safe Florida Home Program. The department shall provide fiscal
41 accountability, contract management, and strategic leadership
42 for the program, consistent with this section. This section does
43 not create an entitlement for property owners or obligate the
44 state in any way to fund the inspection or retrofitting of
45 residential property in this state. Implementation of this
46 program is subject to annual legislative appropriations. It is
47 the intent of the Legislature that, subject to the availability
48 of funds, the My Safe Florida Home Program provide licensed
49 inspectors to perform inspections for owners of site-built,
50 single-family, residential properties and grants to eligible
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51 applicants. The department shall implement the program in such a
52 manner that the total amount of funding requested by accepted
53 applications, whether for inspections, grants, or other services
54 or assistance, does not exceed the total amount of available
55 funds. If, after applications are processed and approved, funds
56 remain available, the department may accept applications up to
57 the available amount. The program shall develop and implement a
58 comprehensive and coordinated approach for hurricane and flood
59 damage mitigation that may include the following:
60 (1) HURRICANE AND FLOOD MITIGATION INSPECTIONS.—
61 (a) Licensed inspectors are to provide home inspections of
62 site-built, single-family, residential properties for which a
63 homestead exemption has been granted, to determine what
64 mitigation measures are needed, what insurance premium discounts
65 may be available, and what improvements to existing residential
66 properties are needed to reduce the property's vulnerability to
67 hurricane and flood damage. An inspector may inspect a townhouse
68 as defined in s. 481.203 to determine if opening protection
69 mitigation as listed in paragraph (2)(e) would provide
70 improvements to mitigate hurricane damage.
71 (b) The Department of Financial Services shall contract
72 with wind and flood certification entities to provide hurricane
73 and flood mitigation inspections. The inspections provided to
74 homeowners, at a minimum, must include:
75 1. A home inspection and report that summarizes the
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76 results and identifies recommended improvements a homeowner may
77 take to mitigate hurricane and flood damage.
78 2. A range of cost estimates regarding the recommended
79 mitigation improvements.
80 3. Information regarding estimated premium discounts,
81 correlated to the current mitigation features and the
82 recommended mitigation improvements identified by the
83 inspection.
84 (c) To qualify for selection by the department as a wind
85 or flood certification entity to provide hurricane or flood
86 mitigation inspections, the entity must, at a minimum, meet the
87 following requirements:
88 1. Use hurricane or flood mitigation inspectors who are
89 licensed or certified as:
90 a. A building inspector under s. 468.607;
91 b. A general, building, or residential contractor under s.
92 489.111;
93 c. A professional engineer under s. 471.015;
94 d. A professional architect under s. 481.213; or
95 e. For wind certification entities, a home inspector under
96 s. 468.8314 and who have completed at least 3 hours of hurricane
97 mitigation training approved by the Construction Industry
98 Licensing Board, which training must include, at a minimum,
99 hurricane mitigation techniques, such as proper hurricane strap
100 installation and building code requirements for secondary water
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101 barriers and secondary water resistance;, compliance with the
102 uniform mitigation verification form;, and completion of a
103 proficiency exam; or.
104 f. For flood certification entities, a home inspector
105 under s. 468.8314. The home inspector must be a certified
106 floodplain manager who has completed at least 3 hours of flood
107 mitigation training.
108 2. Use hurricane or flood mitigation inspectors who also
109 have undergone drug testing and a background screening. The
110 department may conduct criminal record checks of inspectors used
111 by wind certification entities. Inspectors must submit a set of
112 fingerprints to the department for state and national criminal
113 history checks and must pay the fingerprint processing fee set
114 forth in s. 624.501. The fingerprints must be sent by the
115 department to the Department of Law Enforcement and forwarded to
116 the Federal Bureau of Investigation for processing. The results
117 must be returned to the department for screening. The
118 fingerprints must be taken by a law enforcement agency,
119 designated examination center, or other department-approved
120 entity.
121 3. Provide a quality assurance program including a
122 reinspection component.
123 (d) An application for an inspection must contain a signed
124 or electronically verified statement made under penalty of
125 perjury that the applicant has submitted only a single
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126 application for that home.
127 (e) The owner of a site-built, single-family, residential
128 property or townhouse as defined in s. 481.203, for which a
129 homestead exemption has been granted, may apply for and receive
130 an inspection without also applying for a grant pursuant to
131 subsection (2) and without meeting the requirements of paragraph
132 (2)(a).
133 (2) MITIGATION GRANTS.—Financial grants shall be used to
134 encourage single-family, site-built, owner-occupied, residential
135 property owners to retrofit their properties to make them less
136 vulnerable to hurricane and flood damage.
137 (a) For a homeowner to be eligible for a grant, the
138 following criteria must be met:
139 1. The homeowner must have been granted a homestead
140 exemption on the home under chapter 196.
141 2. The home must be a dwelling with an insured value of
142 $700,000 or less. Homeowners who are low-income persons, as
143 defined in s. 420.0004(11), are exempt from this requirement.
144 3. The home must undergo an acceptable hurricane or flood
145 mitigation inspection as provided in subsection (1).
146 4. For hurricane mitigation grants, the building permit
147 application for initial construction of the home must have been
148 made before January 1, 2008.
149 5. For flood mitigation grants, the home must:
150 a. Exist in a 100-year floodplain as determined by the
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151 floodplain studies or computations from federal, state, or local
152 agencies;
153 b. Exist in a community that participates in the National
154 Flood Insurance Program Community Rating System administered by
155 the Federal Emergency Management Agency with a Class 9 or above;
156 and
157 c. Be covered by the National Flood Insurance Program or
158 private flood insurance.
159 6.5. The homeowner must agree to make his or her home
160 available for inspection once a mitigation project is completed.
161
162 An application for a grant must contain a signed or
163 electronically verified statement made under penalty of perjury
164 that the applicant has submitted only a single application and
165 must have attached documents demonstrating the applicant meets
166 the requirements of this paragraph.
167 (b) All grants must be matched on the basis of $1 provided
168 by the applicant for $2 provided by the state up to a maximum
169 state contribution of $10,000 toward the actual cost of the
170 mitigation project. The $10,000 maximum state contribution is a
171 lifetime cap for a specific home and homeowner for the hurricane
172 and flood mitigation grants combined.
173 (c) The program shall create a process in which
174 contractors agree to participate and homeowners select from a
175 list of participating contractors. All mitigation must be based
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176 upon the securing of all required local permits and inspections
177 and must be performed by properly licensed contractors.
178 Hurricane and flood mitigation inspectors qualifying for the
179 program may also participate as mitigation contractors as long
180 as the inspectors meet the department's qualifications and
181 certification requirements for mitigation contractors.
182 (d) Matching fund grants shall also be made available to
183 local governments and nonprofit entities for projects that will
184 reduce hurricane or flood damage to single-family, site-built,
185 owner-occupied, residential property. The department shall
186 liberally construe those requirements in favor of availing the
187 state of the opportunity to leverage funding for the My Safe
188 Florida Home Program with other sources of funding.
189 (e) When recommended by a hurricane or flood mitigation
190 inspection, grants for eligible homes may be used for the
191 following improvements:
192 1. Opening protection.
193 2. Exterior doors, including garage doors.
194 3. Reinforcing roof-to-wall connections.
195 4. Improving the strength of roof-deck attachments.
196 5. Secondary water barrier for roof.
197 6. Flood mitigation activities, including, but not limited
198 to:
199 a. Flood barriers.
200 b. Improvements to site drainage.
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201 c. Utility protections.
202 d. Flood openings.
203 (f) When recommended by a hurricane mitigation inspection,
204 grants for townhouses, as defined in s. 481.203, and condominium
205 units, as the terms "condominium" and "unit" are defined in s.
206 718.103, may only be used only for opening protection and roof
207 coverings.
208 (g) The department may require that improvements be made
209 to all openings, including exterior doors and garage doors, as a
210 condition of reimbursing a homeowner approved for a grant. The
211 department may adopt, by rule, the maximum grant allowances for
212 any improvement allowable under paragraph (e) or this paragraph
213 (f).
214 (h) The department may not award a hurricane mitigation
215 grant to a homeowner under this program if the hurricane
216 mitigation inspector determines that the homeowner's home has a
217 form of opening protection that is rated but the homeowner
218 cannot or does not provide documen