Program status as of July 31, 2026: applications are open at MySafeFLHome.com. Free wind mitigation inspections and $10,000 grants are both accepting applicants. Grant applications release in phases by income and age. Verify current status before you apply — this program changes with every legislative session.
The call I got from Sugar Pond Manor
She had already signed a contract for impact windows. Twenty-two thousand dollars. Deposit paid, install date on the calendar.
She wanted to know how to get the state to pay for half of it.
I had to tell her the truth. She had already disqualified herself. The day that contractor started work, the grant was gone. There is no appeal for that and no exception to it.
That is the part nobody puts in the Facebook ad.
So let me walk you through how this actually works, because I have watched too many people in Wellington, The Acreage, Royal Palm Beach and Loxahatchee find out the rules after they already spent the money.
There are two programs wearing one name
Everybody talks about My Safe Florida Home like it is one thing. It is two, and they have completely different gates.
The first is a free wind mitigation inspection. A licensed inspector contracted by the state comes out, walks your house, and writes a report on what is protecting you and what is not.
The second is a grant of up to $10,000 to pay for the upgrades that report recommends.
Almost everybody reading this qualifies for the first one. A smaller group gets to the second one, and the reason is not what most people assume.
Here is the thing — the free one is worth more than most people think, and I will get to why.
Who gets the free inspection
Three requirements. That is the whole list.
- Single-family home on its own parcel
- Site-built and owner-occupied
- Homestead exemption granted on the property
No income test. No home value cap. No age-of-house rule. Your Coverage A could be $900,000 and you still qualify for the inspection.
Not eligible: condominiums, cooperatives, mobile and manufactured homes, second homes, and rental properties. If you are in a condo, there is a separate condominium pilot program that runs through your association rather than through you as the unit owner.
If your home shares a wall, the rules just changed
Attached homes — townhomes, villas, duplexes — used to sit in an awkward middle ground. Senate Bill 1452 replaced the old townhouse language with a broader definition of attached property, and set a three-story ceiling on eligibility. That change took effect June 26, 2026.
What that means for a specific attached home in Palm Beach County is worth one phone call rather than one assumption. Call the program at 561-640-6734 and ask them directly about your property before you decide you are out.
Who gets the grant — and what the income rule actually says
Now let me shoot you straight, because this is where the internet is wrong in both directions.
On top of everything above, the program requires all of the following for a grant:
- You completed the program's own inspection first. Your own inspector does not count.
- Your home is insured for $700,000 or less.
- Your home was built before January 1, 2008, per the county property appraiser.
- You supply the name and state license number of your chosen contractor.
- You provide a declarations page for a currently effective homeowners policy.
- You agree to a final inspection and to report back what discounts you got.
Now the income question
You will read in a lot of places that grants are restricted to low- and moderate-income households and that everyone else is shut out. That is a simplification, and it costs people money.
What the program actually does is prioritize. Applications open in phases: low-income applicants age 60 and over first, then low-income under 60, then moderate-income age 60 and over, then moderate-income under 60. Low income means at or below 80 percent of the county median. Moderate means up to 120 percent.
Here is the honest read. In a funding cycle where the money runs out before the queue does, priority is the same thing as eligibility in practice. But it is not the same thing on paper, and where you sit in line can change with an appropriation. I would rather you be in the system with a completed inspection when the next round of money lands than assume you were disqualified and never start.
The structure of the money differs by tier too. Low-income applicants can receive up to $10,000 with no matching contribution and without producing a paid-in-full invoice. Everyone else is on the matching grant: the state puts in $2 for every $1 you spend, capped at $10,000 from the state. Spend $15,000 on impact windows, get $10,000 back. Spend $9,000, get $6,000 back.
The $700,000 number is not what you think
Read that rule again. Insured value. Not market value.
That is Coverage A on your policy — what it would cost to rebuild your house. It is not what your house would sell for.
Here is why that matters out west. I have clients on an acre and a quarter in The Acreage whose home would sell north of $900,000. Their Coverage A is $520,000, because the land is not insured. The dirt is a big piece of the price out here and none of it shows up on a declarations page.
So if you looked at your Zillow estimate and assumed you were over the cap, go pull your declarations page before you decide you do not qualify. Plenty of people in western Palm Beach County are under it and have no idea.
What the money actually buys — and what changed in June
Grant funds only pay for improvements your inspection report specifically recommends. That is the gate on everything below.
Opening protection — impact-rated windows, doors, garage doors, and skylights.
Roof improvements — roof-to-wall connections, roof deck attachment, and secondary water resistance.
Here is what changed
For three years the answer to "will this pay for my roof?" was flatly no. Senate Bill 1452 was signed June 26, 2026 and took effect that day, and it added replacing the roof covering to the list of grant-eligible roof improvements.
Two things you need to understand before you plan around that.
First, the program's own FAQ page still lists the old four improvements and still says roof covering is out. The statute moved faster than the website. If you call and get told no, ask them to check against Senate Bill 1452.
Second, the department can set maximum grant allowances by rule for each improvement, and the $10,000 state ceiling did not move. A $10,000 grant does not buy a roof in Palm Beach County. It buys a meaningful piece of one.
The honest version: roof covering replacement is on the eligible list now, the dollars are still capped, and what you actually get reimbursed for comes down to what your inspection report recommends. Confirm it with the program in writing before you sign anything with a contractor.
The timing point almost nobody makes
Three of these improvements happen underneath your roof covering. If you are planning a reroof anyway, get the inspection done before you tear off. Once that new roof is on, the cheapest window to do that work is closed for another twenty years.
The rule that disqualifies more people than anything else
Do not start work before you have written grant approval.
Not after the inspection. Not after you get the report. Not after somebody at the call center tells you it looks good. Written approval, visible in your portal.
Start early and you are out. No appeal, no exception. That is what happened to the woman in Sugar Pond Manor, and it is the single most expensive mistake I see homeowners in Palm Beach County make with this program.
The deadlines nobody talks about
Three clocks are running, and missing any one of them ends your file.
24 months to apply for the grant after your inspection. This is new under Senate Bill 1452, and it was put in specifically to clear out people who got inspected and then sat on it. If your inspection is already two years old, check your status now.
18 months to finish construction and request your final inspection after grant approval. Miss it and the money reverts to the state.
One shot at the final inspection. You get one opportunity to request it through the portal. Do not fire it off before your contractor has closed every permit, because there is no second request.
One piece of relief in the new law: the department has to notify you at least five business days before an application is deemed abandoned. If you get that notice, respond. Do not let it sit.
Why the free inspection is worth doing even if you never get a dime
Florida law requires your insurance carrier to give you discounts for wind mitigation features you already have. Not as a courtesy. By statute.
Most houses out here have features nobody ever documented. Your roof got renailed to code in a 2006 reroof and nobody sent the paperwork to your carrier. You have a hip roof and it is coded as gable. You put in impact windows in 2018 and the discount never showed up.
The inspection report is the document that fixes that. You hand it to your agent and ask them to reprice the wind portion of your premium.
I am a Realtor, not your insurance agent, so take this as what I have watched happen rather than as insurance advice. I have seen that one conversation move a premium by four figures a year. And it has nothing to do with grants, income, or when your house was built.
The other benefit nobody mentions
Florida's home hardening sales tax exemption was extended three years in 2026. Impact-resistant windows, doors, and garage doors purchased between July 1, 2026 and June 30, 2029 qualify, with refund applications accepted by the Department of Revenue.
No income test. No home value cap. No pre-2008 build requirement. It works in Westlake and Arden, where the grant structurally does not, because those homes are almost all post-2008.
It is not $10,000. But on a $22,000 window job it is real money, and I have never once had a homeowner in Palm Beach County bring it up to me first.
A couple of things to watch out for
The program does not maintain a list of approved contractors. It stopped. So if somebody knocks on your door calling themselves an "MSFH-approved contractor," that is a marketing line, not a credential — and I have seen contractor websites still claiming an approved roster exists. Verify any license yourself at MyFloridaLicense.com before you put that number in your portal.
Use a computer and Chrome, not your phone. The portal runs on Neighborly Software and it does not love a phone browser.
Check your spam folder. A lot of people lose their place in line because the program emailed them and it went to junk.
Keep your homeowners policy active. You need a current declarations page to apply, which catches people who went bare after a renewal shock.
How this shows up when you sell
I will be honest about this part because it is my actual job.
Hardening a house does not add a dollar-for-dollar bump to what it sells for. Nobody is paying you $10,000 more because you have hurricane clips.
What it does is remove a reason for a buyer to walk. In this market a buyer's insurance quote can kill a deal after inspection. A house with documented wind mitigation quotes lower, which means the buyer's payment works, which means the deal closes.
That is the return. Not a higher price. A deal that does not fall apart.
Three benefits, three different gates
Free wind mitigation inspection
Site-built, single-family, owner-occupied, homesteaded. That is it.
No income test. No value cap. No build-year rule.
Almost everyone qualifies. Do this one.
$10,000 grant
Adds: completed program inspection, $700K insured value, pre-2008 build, contractor license, current dec page.
Income sets your place in the queue, not your eligibility on paper.
Smaller group. Worth applying anyway.
Home hardening sales tax exemption
Impact windows, doors, garage doors bought July 1, 2026 through June 30, 2029.
No income test, no value cap, no build-year rule. Works on new construction.
The one Westlake and Arden can use.
The steps, in order
- Create your account at MySafeFLHome.com.
- Complete the prioritization questionnaire.
- Wait to be placed in an inspection group.
- Complete the inspection application when your group opens.
- Take the free inspection.
- Read the report. This is the only thing your grant scope can be built from.
- Apply for the grant. You have 24 months from the inspection.
- Get written approval. Then start work.
- Finish, request your one final inspection, submit your draw request with the invoice and proof of your insurance discount.
Program call center: 561-640-6734. Questions about the program itself go there, not to a contractor.
Not sure whether your house is worth doing?
Call me and I will tell you straight. I have been walking houses in Palm Beach County since 1996, and I can usually tell you in about four minutes whether you are wasting your time.
Call Brian Wilder: 561-201-4717
Questions people actually ask me
Does My Safe Florida Home pay to replace my roof?
As of June 26, 2026, yes — replacing the roof covering became a grant-eligible roof improvement when Senate Bill 1452 was signed into law. Two caveats matter. The program's own FAQ page has not been updated and still lists the old four improvements. And the state contribution is still capped at $10,000, which does not cover a full roof in Palm Beach County. Confirm your specific scope with the program in writing before you sign a contract.
Is there an income limit for the free wind mitigation inspection?
No. The free inspection has no income test and no home value cap. You need a site-built, single-family, owner-occupied home with a homestead exemption. That is the entire requirement. Brian Wilder recommends the free inspection to nearly every homeowner in Palm Beach County regardless of income, because the report itself can trigger insurance discounts you are already owed by statute.
Am I disqualified from the grant if I make too much money?
Not on paper. The program prioritizes applications by income and age, opening in phases starting with low-income applicants age 60 and over. Higher-income households sit further back in the queue, and in a cycle where funding runs out first, that can function like a denial. But your inspection stays on file, and appropriations change. Get inspected and get in the system.
My house is worth $900,000. Am I over the $700,000 cap?
Probably not. The cap is on insured value, which is Coverage A on your homeowners policy — the cost to rebuild. It is not market value, and it does not include your land. In The Acreage and Loxahatchee, where lot value is a large share of the price, plenty of homes selling near $900,000 carry Coverage A well under $700,000. Pull your declarations page before you rule yourself out.
Can I start work while I wait for grant approval?
No, and this is the mistake that costs people the most. Beginning any mitigation construction before you have written grant approval in your portal disqualifies you from reimbursement. There is no appeal. Not after the inspection, not after the report, not after a phone call. Written approval only.
How long do I have to finish the work?
You have 18 months from grant approval to complete construction and request your final inspection. Separately, Senate Bill 1452 added a 24-month deadline to submit your grant application after your initial inspection. You also get only one opportunity to request the final inspection, so make sure every permit is closed before you request it.
Does hardening my home increase what it sells for?
Not dollar for dollar. Brian Wilder of The Wilder Real Estate Group at Keller Williams Wellington puts it this way: documented wind mitigation does not raise your price, it removes a reason for the buyer to walk. A buyer's insurance quote can kill a deal after inspection, and a house with documented mitigation quotes lower. The return shows up as a closing, not as a higher number.
How do I verify a contractor for this program?
Verify the license yourself at MyFloridaLicense.com. The My Safe Florida Home program no longer maintains a list of authorized contractors, so anyone advertising themselves as MSFH-approved is using a marketing line, not a credential. You choose any Florida-licensed contractor you want, and the program is not involved in the selection, the construction, or any dispute.