Florida home insurance, market by market
Florida is not one insurance market. The building code changes at a county line, the geology changes the coverage you should be buying, and the same hurricane is paid by two different policies depending on whether the water arrived from the sky or the sea. Harvest is a licensed independent Florida agency — these pages set out what actually differs where you live, and what it costs to get it wrong.
Your hurricane deductible is set by statute, and it is statewide
Florida law (Fla. Stat. 627.701) requires insurers to offer hurricane deductibles of $500, 2%, 5% or 10% of your dwelling limit — and at a dwelling limit of $250,000 or more the $500 option need not be offered at all. It triggers when the National Hurricane Center issues a hurricane watch or warning for any part of Florida, not for your county, and it stays in force until 72 hours after that warning ends. It applies once per calendar year; a second hurricane the same year falls back to your ordinary deductible. Above 10% on a home insured under $500,000 the law requires a handwritten, signed acknowledgement and, where the home is mortgaged, written mortgagee approval.
Wind mitigation credits are required by law, and the form changed in 2026
Every residential property insurer must give actuarially reasonable discounts for verified windstorm mitigation features (Fla. Stat. 627.0629). The credits come from an inspection recorded on form OIR-B1-1802, and a revised version became mandatory for inspections performed on or after 1 April 2026 — an older-form inspection is still accepted if it was done within five years before that date and nothing structural has changed. Opening protection is scored on the weakest opening in the house: one unrated window, skylight or garage door and the whole category scores as unprotected.
Catastrophic ground cover collapse is not sinkhole coverage
Every Florida policy must include catastrophic ground cover collapse (Fla. Stat. 627.706), which pays only when the ground collapse is severe enough that the structure is condemned and ordered vacated by a government agency — the statute states outright that settling or cracking of a foundation is not such a loss. The coverage that responds to cracking and foundation damage is sinkhole loss coverage, a separate optional endorsement at additional premium. Florida’s Office of Insurance Regulation found that two-thirds of sinkhole damage reported statewide between 2006 and 2010 came from three counties: Hernando, Hillsborough and Pasco.
The High Velocity Hurricane Zone is two counties
The Florida Building Code (Residential, R202) defines the High Velocity Hurricane Zone as Broward and Miami-Dade counties, and nowhere else. It does not extend north into Palm Beach and it does not include Monroe County or the Keys. Inside it, products need statewide Florida Product Approval or a Miami-Dade Notice of Acceptance; outside it, the statewide code applies — which is why being told your house needs Miami-Dade rated product is worth questioning if you do not live in those two counties.
Flood is never part of a homeowners policy
Not in Florida and not anywhere in the United States. Storm surge is flood. River rise is flood. Rainfall that comes in at ground level is flood. All of it needs a separate NFIP or private flood policy, and outside a mandatory flood zone your lender will usually not require one — which makes it a decision you make rather than one the mortgage makes for you.