PSL earns high ranking, may reduce property insurance rates

Published on November 06, 2024

The City of Port St. Lucie takes a proactive, comprehensive approach to building safety and code enforcement, which has resulted in opportunities for financial savings for property owners.

The City recently received high ratings for its building code enforcement practices that were higher than national and state averages for commercial and residential buildings. Those higher rankings can translate to lower property insurance premiums for Port St. Lucie residents and business owners.

The Building Code Effectiveness Grading Schedule (BCEGS) is a program administered by the Insurance Services Office (ISO), an advisory and rating organization for the property and casualty insurance industry. The Building Code Effectiveness Grading Schedule evaluates building departments across the country based on their building code adoption and enforcements, then grades them. BCEGS helps communities reduce the damage caused by natural disasters, lower insurance costs and promote the construction of safer buildings.

Communities are evaluated based on state or local building code polices and practices in 27 areas of focus for both residential and commercial buildings. The 27 evaluated factors range from experience and training of building inspectors, adopted codes of the jurisdiction, zoning and land-use regulations, record-keeping practices, emergency management plan and more.

Based on those factors, a score is assigned from 1-100 and a BCEGS classification is assigned on a scale from 1-10 (with 1 being the best, 10 the worst). The 2024 Florida state average for commercial buildings was a score of 78.18 and a classification of 3, while residential was 72.47 and a classification of 4. Nationwide, less than 10% earned a classification of 2 for commercial and fewer than 10% earned a 3 classification for residential.

This year, Port St. Lucie scored 86.65 for commercial with a classification of 2, with a score of 77.46 for residential and a classification of 3 – both better than state and national averages.

Insurers use the assigned grading to determine property insurance values and great premium credits for buildings constructed under strictly enforced codes.

“Effective building code enforcement leads to safer buildings, less damage from natural disasters and other catastrophic events, and lower insured losses. This can lead to savings for insured property owners,” said Joel Dramis, Building Department Director for the City of Port St. Lucie. “We get numerous calls from policyholders telling us their insurance premiums have been reduced between $300-400 as a result of our ISO report and BCEGS rating.”