4-Point Electrical Inspection Requirements in Fort Myers | CoHarbor Electric

Had a homeowner call us in a bit of a panic last spring — she’d just gotten a letter from her insurance carrier saying her policy wouldn’t renew without a 4-point inspection, and she had no idea what that even meant. House was in North Fort Myers, built in the late 80s, nothing wrong with it that she knew of. She just needed someone to tell her what was actually being checked and whether she should be worried. Reasonable question. Most people don’t hear the term “4-point inspection” until an insurance company brings it up, usually with a deadline attached.

So here’s the plain version of what it is, what it covers on the electrical side specifically, and what tends to cause problems for homeowners across Fort Myers and the rest of Lee County.

What a 4-Point Inspection Actually Is

A 4-point inspection is a limited, insurance-driven inspection covering four systems: roof, electrical, plumbing, and HVAC. It’s not the same as a full home inspection you’d get during a purchase — it’s narrower, faster, and specifically built around what insurance underwriters care about most when deciding whether to write or renew a policy. Most Florida insurers require one on homes over a certain age, typically somewhere around 30 to 40 years old depending on the carrier, though we’ve seen some request them earlier on homes with a claims history or specific risk factors.

We’re only going to talk about the electrical piece here, since that’s our end of it, but it’s worth knowing the other three exist and get evaluated by different trades on the same visit, usually.

What the Electrical Portion Actually Covers

Panel Brand and Condition

This is usually the first thing an inspector looks at, and it’s the one most likely to cause a denial or a required repair. Certain panel brands — Federal Pacific Stab-Lok and Zinsco panels are the two that come up constantly in Fort Myers’ older housing stock — have documented histories of breakers that don’t trip reliably during a fault. Insurance carriers know this, and a lot of them won’t write a policy on a home with one of these panels still active, regardless of whether it’s ever caused a problem. The panel’s condition otherwise matters too — corrosion, rust, signs of overheating, water intrusion — any of that gets noted.

Wiring Type

Inspectors are checking for aluminum branch circuit wiring, which turns up in homes built roughly between 1965 and 1973, and for knob-and-tube wiring in older properties, though that’s rarer this far south. Neither one is an automatic fail in every case, but both get flagged, and most carriers want documentation that any aluminum connections have been properly addressed — typically copper pigtailing at the connection points — before they’ll write a policy without exclusions.

Visible Wiring Condition and Exposed Connections

Exposed splices, wiring that isn’t properly contained in a junction box, extension cords used as permanent wiring — these are common findings, especially in garages and attics where previous owners have added circuits without pulling a permit. It’s the kind of thing that looks minor to a homeowner and reads as a real liability to an underwriter.

Grounding and GFCI Protection

Inspectors check whether GFCI protection is present in kitchens, bathrooms, garages, and exterior outlets, which current code requires under NEC Article 210. A lot of homes built before the 2000s simply don’t have it retrofitted, and that shows up as a finding even though the wiring itself might be perfectly sound otherwise. Grounding at the panel gets checked too — whether the system is properly bonded, which matters more for safety than most homeowners realize.

General Code Compliance and Permit History

If there’s obvious evidence of unpermitted electrical work — a subpanel that doesn’t match anything on file with Lee County, wiring that looks recently added but was never inspected — that gets noted as well. Inspectors aren’t pulling permit records during a 4-point visit, generally, but visible signs of amateur or undocumented work raise flags fast.

What Happens If Something Fails

A failed item on a 4-point inspection doesn’t automatically mean a denied policy, though it can. More often, the carrier will require the item be corrected within a set window — sometimes 30 days, sometimes longer, depending on the insurer — with documentation that the repair was done by a licensed contractor. This is where things get time-sensitive for a lot of homeowners, because if the fix requires pulling a Lee County permit and scheduling an inspection, that timeline can get tight fast, especially during storm season when everyone’s calendar fills up.

We had a case last year out near Buckingham where a Federal Pacific panel replacement needed to happen inside a three-week insurance deadline. We got it scheduled, coordinated FPL for the disconnect and reconnect, and made the window — but barely, and only because the homeowner called the day she got the letter instead of waiting to see if the insurance company would budge. They generally don’t.

Common Mistakes Homeowners Make With This Process

The biggest one is waiting until the deadline is close before calling anyone. A panel replacement or wiring correction isn’t usually a same-week job once you factor in FPL coordination and Lee County inspection scheduling, so the earlier you start, the more breathing room you have. The second common mistake is assuming a passed home inspection at purchase means the electrical system will automatically pass a 4-point years later — those are different evaluations with different standards, and a home can pass one and fail the other depending on what’s changed with underwriting guidelines since the purchase. And the third is trying to handle flagged issues without a permit, which usually backfires, since most insurers want to see documentation the repair was actually inspected and closed out, not just completed.

Why This Comes Up More in Fort Myers Than People Expect

Fort Myers has a lot of housing stock that falls right in the age range carriers are watching closely — plenty of homes built in the 70s and 80s throughout areas like Fort Myers Shores and older sections of North Fort Myers, alongside coastal and canal-front properties where humidity and salt air accelerate corrosion on panels and exterior connections faster than it would inland. Add in Florida’s broader insurance market pressures over the last several years, and carriers have gotten noticeably stricter about what they’ll accept on aging electrical systems. It’s not really about any one home being unusually risky — it’s an industry-wide tightening, and Fort Myers’ housing age profile puts a lot of homeowners right in the middle of it.

Schedule Your 4-Point Electrical Assessment With Coharbor Electric

If you’ve gotten a notice from your insurance carrier, or you just want to know where your home stands before that letter shows up, Coharbor Electric is a licensed and insured electrical contractor serving Fort Myers and the surrounding Lee County area, including Cape Coral, Lehigh Acres, and communities along the Caloosahatchee. We’ll walk the panel, check the wiring type, confirm GFCI coverage, and give you an honest read on what’s likely to pass and what isn’t — plus a real timeline if something needs fixing before your deadline. Reach out to Coharbor Electric and let’s get ahead of your inspection instead of scrambling after it.