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Insurance Discounts for Roofs: Impact Ratings, FORTIFIED, and Wind Mitigation

  • Published November 7, 2026

Roof discounts go to features an insurer can verify, so the credit depends on paperwork: proof of a UL 2218 Class 4 impact rating for impact-resistant shingles, a FORTIFIED designation from IBHS, or, in Florida, the OIR-B1-1802 wind mitigation form. Ask which proof your insurer accepts before you pay for an upgrade, because a roof feature nobody documented earns nothing.

Class 4 shingles do not earn a discount automatically. Whether a credit exists, how large it is, and what proof qualifies all vary by state and by insurer, and the proof you need is easiest to collect on the day the roof goes on.

Roof Credits Go to What the Insurer Can Verify

An underwriter cannot climb onto every roof. A credit is priced on a feature the insurer can confirm from a document in your file: a product rating, a designation, or an inspection form. If the document is missing, the insurer may treat the roof like any other, no matter what is on it.

Ask first, buy second. Before choosing a product or upgrade, ask your insurer or agent in writing which roof features earn a credit on your policy, what proof each requires, and where to send it. Some states have their own rules on mitigation credits; your state insurance department, listed in the NAIC’s directory of state regulators, can tell you whether yours does. For how roof coverage works overall, see what a homeowners policy pays for on a roof.

Impact-Resistant Roofs: The Proof Behind a Class 4 Credit

“Class 4” is the top class in UL 2218, a laboratory steel-ball impact test; IBHS’s summary of UL 2218 impact tests gives the ball sizes, and UL lists the current edition as UL 2218 Edition 2, revised May 28, 2024. What the label does and does not prove is covered in the Class 4 shingle guide; for a credit, what matters is the proof.

For a credit, the insurer wants proof that the shingles on your roof carry that rating. Collect:

  • Photos of the shingle bundle wrappers showing the product name and the UL 2218 Class 4 marking.
  • The manufacturer’s product documentation stating the impact class.
  • The contractor’s invoice naming the exact product and color installed.
  • The permit and final inspection, which date the installation.

If the roof is already on and you never collected these, ask the contractor for a copy of the invoice and the product data sheet, and check your manufacturer warranty registration, which names the product. If only part of the roof was re-covered with rated shingles, ask the insurer whether the credit requires the entire roof covering to carry the rating.

A Class 4 label is a pass in a lab test, not a measure of how well one product holds up compared with another. IBHS runs a separate program that rates impact-resistant shingles against each other. Its 2025 ratings release, dated November 19, 2025, evaluated 24 products; most earned a “Good” rating, and none achieved “Excellent.” IBHS also advises against using a product rated Marginal or Poor anywhere hail occurs.

That difference matters if an insurer or program asks for more than the label, as FORTIFIED does below. How far a Class 4 label goes against real hail is covered in impact-resistant (Class 4) shingles.

FORTIFIED: The Designation Is the Proof

FORTIFIED is a construction standard and designation program run by IBHS. The FORTIFIED Roof page lists what the roof needs, among them a sealed roof deck, ring-shank nails set in an enhanced nailing pattern, a wider drip edge, and a starter strip that is fully adhered. The Hail Supplement goes further: asphalt shingles on a Hail Supplement roof need a Good or Excellent score in IBHS’s hail impact ratings, a stricter test than a Class 4 label alone.

For an insurer, the proof is the FORTIFIED designation for your house, issued after the required evaluation, not the shingle wrapper or a contractor’s promise that the roof was “built to FORTIFIED.” If you are paying for FORTIFIED, confirm before work starts that the roofer has an active FORTIFIED Wise listing, which IBHS’s 2025 standard requires for every component of a FORTIFIED Roof, that a certified FORTIFIED evaluator is lined up, and that the contractor will complete the documentation the evaluation needs; keep the designation document with your policy. The requirements and the evaluation process are covered in IBHS FORTIFIED Roof.

Wind Mitigation Inspections and Forms

Florida uses a standard form to document wind-resistance features for insurance. The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation’s wind mitigation resources page says form OIR-B1-1802 is completed by an authorized inspector during a wind mitigation inspection, and that the form “is valid for up to five (5) years provided no material changes are made to the structure.” A new edition of the form took effect April 1, 2026, replacing the edition revised in January 2012.

Three practical rules follow from that:

  1. Confirm the edition. The form changed effective April 1, 2026, so ask the inspector and your insurer which edition they need for your inspection.
  2. Re-inspect after a re-roof. A new roof changes the features the form records, so schedule a new inspection after the final roofing inspection and send the new form to your insurer.
  3. Track the five years. Note the inspection date and plan the next one before the form ages out, because a lapsed form can mean a lapsed credit.

Hire an inspector who is authorized to complete the form, and ask for a copy with every page and photo attached. Outside Florida, ask your insurer whether it uses a mitigation inspection form, accepts a FORTIFIED designation, or offers no wind credit at all.

Submitting Proof and Keeping Credits at Renewal

A credit can drop off at renewal, and it does not follow you to a new insurer on its own. Use this checklist:

  1. At installation, collect wrapper photos, product documentation, the invoice, the permit final, and any FORTIFIED designation or wind mitigation form.
  2. As soon as the work passes final inspection, send the package to your insurer or agent in writing and ask which credits it applies.
  3. When the next declarations page arrives, check that each credit appears. If one is missing, resend the proof and ask for a corrected declarations page.
  4. At each renewal, check again; resubmit if anything has dropped.
  5. When you switch insurers, send the full package to the new company before the policy starts.
  6. For Florida’s form, set a reminder before the five-year validity ends.

Keep one digital folder with all of it, because the same documents support a later sale or claim.

Which Roof Credit Is Worth Pursuing for Your House?

Start from the roof you are going to install anyway. If you are re-roofing in a hail area, ask your insurer what impact proof it credits before choosing a product, and if the answer involves IBHS ratings or FORTIFIED, choose a shingle rated Good or Excellent. If you are re-roofing in Florida, budget for a wind mitigation inspection after the final inspection. If you are on a hurricane coast or in Alabama, compare FORTIFIED’s added cost with any state grant, using the eligibility rules in roof repair assistance programs.

Hypothetical example: An impact-rated shingle adds $1,200 to the roof price, and the insurer’s written quote shows a $150 yearly credit for it. The credits repay the upgrade in 8 years, if the credit stays on the policy every year. If you expect to sell before then, judge the upgrade on how the roof performs in hail, not on the credit.

Weigh the credit your insurer quotes in writing against the cost of the upgrade, and remember that your deductible may matter more on a claim than a premium credit; figuring a percentage deductible in dollars shows that math.

Before you choose a product, ask your insurer in writing which roof credits it offers and what proof each requires, then collect that proof at installation and resubmit it at every renewal.

This guide is general information for U.S. homeowners, not legal, insurance, tax, or engineering advice. Codes, laws, and policy terms vary by location and change over time; confirm details with your local building department, your insurer, or a licensed professional.

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