Let’s talk about Windstorm Certificates. You know, that document issued by the Totally Worthless Insurance Assessment. No, wait – it is the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association. Regardless, TWIA sets the rates for insurance in windstorm areas and Windstorm Certificates play a role in your and your neighbors insurance premiums.
The process of getting a certificate, or WPI-8, starts with a WPI-1. That is a document provided to the state naming an engineer of record, the person responsible if the plans and blueprints with a stamp don’t perform as planned. The next step is construction, and the engineer or someone he trusts will inspect the process at different stages. Once construction is complete and all inspections passed, the engineer sends a WPI-2 to the state. That document simply states that the structure was built to windstorm standards as defined on the plans. The state turns it into a WPI-8, aka Windstorm Certificate. You can find yours at https://www.twia.org/wpi-8-lookup/
Just my two cents . . .Once upon a time windstorm insurance wasn’t offered. People who built big houses worry a lot, so insurance companies said Hey, we can make a buck! Everybody was happy until hurricane season. Some homes withstood the winds, others the wind turned into tons of building material projectiles hitting all the surrounding homes. Well built homes got destroyed by debris from poorly built neighbors. Nobody liked that. Especially the insurance companies.
Bankers, insurance companies, and homeowners decided the best way to ensure things are built right was to involve the government. The state no doubt was excited to control something else, and TWIA eventually was born. Of course anything designed and structured by a coalition of bankers, insurance companies, and the guvmint will perform exactly as planned.
For insurance folks along the coast, it’s not if your home will face 135 mph winds, it’s when. You want your home, roof, and outbuildings to have a windstorm certificate; as things have progressed, without it you can’t get insurance, without insurance you can’t sell.
A couple of parting thoughts:
Know who is providing the windstorm cert before you start to build/replace a roof/buy a shed from a big box store. It is much, much more expensive process after construction.
TWIA isn’t evil, its just a guvmint organization. OK, maybe it is evil but not intentionally.
I could write a short book about this, but I’m already past my 400 word limit. Thanks for reading!
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