Southwest Florida Homeowners Insurance: What to Check in 2026

Start before you are under contract, while you can still adjust your offer or move on. A new owner generally can’t take over the seller’s homeowners policy, and the seller’s premium reflects the seller’s history, so treat it as a rough guide.

Ask the listing agent for these:

• The roof. The year it was last fully replaced and the permit.
• A wind mitigation inspection report. If the seller has one, it documents the features insurers give credits for.
• A four-point inspection, for an older home. Many insurers ask for one. It covers the roof, electrical, plumbing, and heating and air.
• Flood records. The FEMA flood zone (check it by address), the elevation certificate if one exists, and the seller’s flood policy declarations page.
• For a condo. The association’s master insurance policy and its hurricane deductible, which can reach owners through an assessment. Get your own unit-owner quote too, and ask how loss assessment coverage applies.

Give them to a licensed insurance agent who quotes several companies, and ask for the homeowners and flood quotes together. Ask what inspections or documents are still needed and whether the quote is subject to further underwriting. If you are already under contract, confirm those details before your contract deadlines. Then put both into our monthly cost calculator with taxes and association fees.

The roof. Florida law says an insurer can’t refuse to write or renew a policy solely because a roof is less than 15 years old. For a roof 15 or more years old, the homeowner must be allowed an inspection at their own expense before a replacement is required, by an inspector who meets the law’s qualifications and is approved by the insurer. If it shows at least 5 years of useful life left, the insurer can’t refuse to issue or renew solely because of roof age. Condition and other underwriting rules still apply. Ask for permits and replacement records so the insurer can confirm the roof’s age.

Wind protection. Roof-to-wall connections, how the roof deck is attached, a secondary water barrier, and impact-rated windows and doors or shutters. When a wind mitigation inspection documents them, a home may qualify for discounts.

Construction and location. Concrete block or frame, the distance to water, the flood zone and the elevation.

Your choices and your history. The coverage amount, the deductibles, how the roof claim is paid, your claims history and, where used, your credit-based insurance score.

Florida’s My Safe Florida Home program offers free wind mitigation inspections and grants of up to $10,000 toward upgrades such as roof improvements, impact windows and doors, and garage door reinforcement for eligible homeowners. Many grants require the homeowner to share the cost, and all depend on available funding. Eligibility rules change, so check the program’s site before you count on a grant.

Homeowners policies here generally cover wind damage from a hurricane, usually with a separate hurricane deductible. Some policies exclude wind, and then wind coverage is written separately.

Standard homeowners policies generally exclude flooding from storm surge or rising water. Flood coverage is usually purchased separately through the National Flood Insurance Program or a private flood insurer. FEMA estimates one inch of floodwater in an average-size home can cause roughly $25,000 in damage.

If the seller has a National Flood Insurance Program policy, ask whether it can be assigned to you and whether any discount on it carries over. Have the flood insurer confirm your premium.

A new National Flood Insurance Program policy generally has a 30-day waiting period. Exceptions include coverage bought in connection with making, increasing, extending or renewing a mortgage. Private flood insurers set their own terms. Have the insurer confirm the effective date before closing.

Citizens is phasing in its own flood insurance requirement, and some policyholders already need flood coverage. Beginning January 1, 2027, the requirement extends to most new and renewing personal residential dwelling policies with wind coverage, regardless of flood zone or dwelling value. Our Lee County flood zones guide covers flood zones, the Citizens rule and the March 2027 changes to affected Lee County flood map panels.

Each company prices the same house its own way, so the same home can draw very different quotes. Compare more than the premium:

• Dwelling coverage. Is it enough to rebuild the house at today’s costs?
• Hurricane deductible. Usually a percentage of dwelling coverage, such as 2%, 5% or 10%. Work out the dollar amount.
• Other deductibles. The all-other-perils deductible for covered losses outside a hurricane, plus any separate roof deductible.
• How a roof claim is paid. Replacement cost pays covered repair or replacement costs, subject to the policy’s terms, limits and deductible. Actual cash value subtracts depreciation. Ask whether depreciation is recoverable and whether a roof payment schedule applies.
• Wind. Included in the policy, or excluded and written separately?
• Flood. Usually a separate policy. Compare its coverage amount and deductible too.
• Limits and exclusions. Ask about screen enclosures and pool cages, water backup, and any other limits listed in the quote.

Florida’s insurance regulator publishes CHOICES, a free tool that shows sample annual premiums from companies in each county for three example homes. The samples come from approved rate filings. They are not quotes, and the state notes a company may not insure a particular home at the price shown. CHOICES is still a quick way to see how widely prices run for the same example home before you request quotes on a specific address.

Waterfront, barrier island and higher-value homes face more conditions. Jenna Adams, Private Client Advisor at Marsh McLennan Agency in Fort Myers, shared what she sees with these buyers:

Higher-end coastal homes are often insured through high-net-worth carriers like PURE or Chubb, but those policies come with conditions: minimum insured values, square footage and elevation requirements, distance-to-coast limits, and often a requirement to bundle other coverage like auto or excess liability.

Jenna Adams, Private Client Advisor, Marsh McLennan Agency, Fort Myers

If private companies decline a home or price it far higher, Citizens Property Insurance is the state’s insurer of last resort. Citizens coverage is generally available when private offers for comparable coverage are more than 20% higher than its premium, or when no private company will offer coverage. The home must also meet Citizens’ eligibility and underwriting requirements. At renewal it works the other way: a private offer for comparable coverage that is not more than 20% higher than the Citizens renewal premium ends eligibility for that Citizens policy.

Citizens’ approved 2026 rates averaged 8.8% lower for homeowners multiperil policies, starting July 1, 2026 for new policies and at renewal for existing ones. Individual premiums vary.

At renewal. Compare the new declarations page with last year’s: premium, dwelling coverage, hurricane deductible and how a roof claim is paid. The 1% FIGA emergency assessment ended for policies effective on or after October 1, 2026, so it should no longer appear on new or renewed policies from that date. If a private insurer took over your Citizens policy, review the coverage and premium at the first renewal with the new company.

A current wind mitigation inspection. If your report is old or missing, ask your insurance agent whether a new inspection could document discounts you are not receiving.

If you are selling. Buyers and their insurance agents will ask for the roof date and permit, the wind mitigation report, a four-point inspection on an older home, current declarations pages, and any flood policy and elevation certificate. Having them ready lets a buyer get quotes quickly. See how we prepare a home on our selling page, or ask what your home is worth.

In 2020, Florida had 8.81% of the homeowners insurance claims opened in the country and 79.16% of the lawsuits opened, according to the state’s July 2026 market report. Florida’s December 2022 property insurance law eliminated one-way attorney fees in property insurance suits and prohibited assignment of post-loss benefits under policies issued on or after January 1, 2023. Broader litigation changes followed in March 2023. The July report’s preliminary 2025 figures were 4.85% of claims and 41.29% of lawsuits.

By that July 2026 report, the state had approved 21 new companies to write residential property policies since the reforms. In its September 22, 2026 release, the regulator said 48 companies have filed for rate decreases since January 2024, and the average requested homeowners rate change over the prior 30 days was a 4.8% decrease, compared with a 1.1% decrease a year earlier. These are requests across the state.

Citizens has shrunk from a peak of 1.41 million policies in October 2023 to 254,351 on October 16, 2026, largely as private companies took over policies.

Statewide approvals don’t tell you which insurers will offer coverage on a particular home. Ask which companies are currently accepting the address.