Sink Touts Success of "My Safe Florida Home"

Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink has announced that the My Safe Florida Home Program has "blown" through a waiting list of 50,000 homeowners who had signed up for a free home inspection under the program's initial pilot program. Lawmakers created the program in 2006, which was backed by a $250 million appropriation to conduct free home inspections in 17 counties. Although more than 67,000 homeowners applied for the inspections, weaknesses in the program limited its actual results. Between August 2006 and March 2007, only 14,700 homes were inspected and 960 grants awarded. As a result, the program was temporarily suspended as lawmakers and Sink took steps to shore-up the program.

Sink contracted with 11 new windstorm inspection firms, and gave them 60 days to start performing a minimum of 1,000 inspections weekly. Lawmakers also clarified the type of homeowners eligible for the program. Specifically, eligible homeowners must receive an inspection after May 1, live in a single-family home built prior to March 1, 2002 with an insured value of $300,000 or less, have a valid homestead exemption, and be located in a wind-borne debris area. Qualifying homeowners can receive up to $5,000 in matching funds to improve their homes' ability to withstand hurricane damage.

"As a businesswoman, I wanted the My Safe Florida Home program to serve Floridians more efficiently and provide the critical information homeowners needed to harden their homes," said Sink. "We are well on our way to informing Florida families about ways to harden their homes and helping them save money on their insurance premiums."

According to the survey, there are 4.4 million single-family homes in the state, 3.2 million of which were built before 1995. The average home is 24 years old, has 2,000 square feet, and is resold every 10 years. Additionally, there are 1.6 million condominium units that have an average age of 29 years. Fifty-eight percent of those units are located in Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties.

For more information on the program, agents can direct homeowners to call the toll-free helpline at 1-866-513-6734, or go to www.MySafeFloridaHome.com.