Are accordion shutters the same as impact windows on the form?

They can both be opening protection, and they are not the same product. The inspector marks what is actually installed and how it is verified. Do not let a listing use one word for both.

Can Leslie order the wind-mitigation inspection?

She can tell you to order it and she can hold the appointment on the calendar. The inspector signs the form. The insurance agent reads it. She does not sign either.

What if the windows were replaced and nobody can find a permit?

Say so early. The buyer’s insurer may still ask. Sometimes an inspector can verify the openings another way. Sometimes the missing permit becomes its own repair. Guessing that it will be fine is how the file dies later.

Impact Windows on a Palm Bay House: What Goes in the Insurance File

A Palm Bay seller will point at the windows and say they are impact. A buyer will hear a discount. Neither of those is a file. Insurers ask what opening protection is actually on the house, who documented it, and whether a permit exists for the job. Leslie Clarke will not quote a premium and will not promise that impact glass changes the bill. She will tell you to get the wind-mitigation paperwork and the permit before anyone argues about the sticker in the corner of the glass.

A sticker is not a form

Impact-rated glass often has a marking in the corner. Shutters have a box in the garage. Plywood in a shed is a plan, not a product. The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation publishes the wind-mitigation form that qualified inspectors use to record opening protection, roof shape, roof covering, and the other features carriers ask about. That form is the document. A listing remark that says “impact windows throughout” is a sentence.

The inspector who signs the form is not the Realtor and not the window salesman. Hire the person your insurance agent says the carrier will accept, and ask for the current version of the form. Forms get revised. An old photocopy from the purchase six years ago may not be what this year’s application wants.

Permits tell you the job was pulled

Windows and shutters are building work. On a Palm Bay house inside the city, the permit trail is the city’s. On a house in the unincorporated county, it is the county’s. Ask which one applies to that address before you search the wrong desk. A permit on file does not prove every opening was done. No permit on file does not prove the glass is fake. It means the paper is missing, and missing paper is what stalls an insurance file in week two of a contract.

Sellers should order the wind-mitigation inspection before the first weekend if the windows are part of the pitch. Buyers should ask for it with the disclosures, not after the loan commitment. Leslie will put both in the same folder as the roof permit and the survey.

What the form is not allowed to do in this conversation

The form records features. It does not set your premium, and it does not force a carrier to offer a credit. Two houses with similar glass can get different answers because of roof age, the year built, the carrier’s current guide, and the rest of the application. If someone promises a percentage off because the windows are impact, ask them to put the quote in writing on that address. A licensed insurance agent is the only person who can do that.

Opening protection also does not fix a roof that insurers will not write. The older-roof conversation and this one meet in the same application. Do not let a new window package hide a covering the carrier already declined.

What this is not

This is not a product review, a list of approved window brands, or a quote. It is not tax advice about credits for impact glass. It is the stack of paper Leslie wants before a Palm Bay buyer falls in love with the light in the living room: the inspection form, the permit search, and a licensed agent’s reading of both. If you have the address, call or write and she will tell you which of those three you are missing.