It’s time for our annual homeowner’s insurance policy renewal! Since we’re Florida residents, you can bet that this is a sore subject. Each year since the unmitigated disaster of the 2004 hurricane season, every Florida resident’s premiums have gone up substantially. Thankfully we have one of the best-built homes on the market, but even it is only rated for the Florida building codes as they were in 2001. In 2002, those codes were made much stricter, so 2002 and newer homes get better rates. Nevertheless, our rates are usually manageable, and I like the insurance company we’re with.

Our paperwork for the upcoming year’s policy renewal just arrived, and of course, the premium went up $550 to a total of nearly $2,900 for the year. Since a brand new fire station was just built about half a mile from here, we decided to call up the insurance company and see if they were aware of it — because if not, it might save us a little bit of money. While I was on the phone with them, I asked to confirm if they had any credits on file with us about our hurricane shutter panels.

Unfortunately, because the insurer had no evidence that our garage door was hurricane reinforced, they were not able to offer us the windstorm protection credit that I thought the shutters provided. This is because every opening on the house — including the garage door, which is the most vulnerable point of entry for strong winds — needs to be reinforced. When I asked how much it would save us if we were to get a reinforced door and thus qualify for the windstorm protection credit, the agent quoted me a discount of $1,100. Damn. Like, can we go get a new garage door today?

She also told us that we could qualify for a further discount if our roof is at least a 50% hip design, rather than a gable. Since our roof qualifies, she told me to submit some photos of the house for verification — so at least we should have one discount coming to us.

But I was stoked about that garage door, so I started looking into it on the web, hoping to get a ballpark figure of what I might have to pay for a reinforced door. As I watched a Bob Vila webcast about installing a door like that, I realized that the door they were putting up looked familiar. So I went out to examine our garage door, and sure enough, it is hurricane reinforced. Granted, it’s reinforcement that compiles with the pre-2002 building codes, but that’s acceptable by my insurance company (they just give you a smaller discount).

Thus began my search for facts and specifications on the door. The home builder only gave us documentation on our garage door opener, so that was useless. I called the home builder direct, and they forwarded me to the warranty department. A woman there informed me that I should speak to the local garage door contractor who installed our door, so I called them. They agreed to mail me a spec sheet on the door, which should hopefully solve my problem. In the meantime, I took extensive photos of the garage door, its reinforcement mechanisms and county code compliance numbers, and sent it all off to the insurance company.

Of course, it remains to be seen what kind of discounts we’ll be able to qualify for when all the facts are in, but this bears repeating: Check with your insurance company when your policy renews to make sure you’re getting the credits you’re due. Especially if you live in Florida.

Edit: The insurance company has informed us that in order to give us a credit for windstorm protection, they need photographs of our house with all the storm shutters installed. Yay, five hours of hard labor in 96-degree heat — just how I wanted to spend my weekend. But for a discount of $1,100 (equivalent to an hourly rate of $220), I’ll do it.