Florida Homeowner's Insurance

Just found out I will be in the same boat as the thread starter. Glad I remembered this thread was available. Anybody have any new contacts for homeowners?

 

Seems like Citizen's is the safe bet. They can sell premiums for less than the cost of a disaster, and your neighbors will pay in to make up the slack. Also, citizens is the only insurer that does not have to pay in for when other 'private' insurers go broke. All quoted rates for next year will get a 9% surcharge for these items that Citizen's policy holders will not have to pay. so if your citizen's quote is within 10% go for it with them.
BT

 

Well I just got booted from nationwide. Bummer Jamesw

 

There will have to be some reform. I'm really, truly an inch away from moving out of the state. My prop taxes went through the roof, it seems like it's getting hotter here in the summer, my power bill is ridiculous in the summer, traffic is getting worse and I'm just over it all. I haven't had an insurance hike or gotten booted, but that's about all I need to have an excuse right now. This is no paradise.

Yes, I'm looking for an excuse.

RMX

 

I know the feeling. I had the exact same thought when I got my new premium. I'm really beside myself about it. I wonder if things are any better in the northern area, like say Jacksonville.

 

The folks in Tally (OUR ELECTED OFFICIALS) should say to ALL those companies that want to sell auto, health and disability insurance here in Florida, that they must accept a piece of the risk by offering hurricane insurance!

It's very frustrating, especially if you live any where near the water.

I recently moved to a new home and am trying to sell my old one (on the barrier island) BEFORE my next premium on that house is due. Otherwise, I am going to get raped TWICE!

 

Max:
where on the barrier Island are you???

Guys:
I came very very close of moving to CT last year. Had the contract signed and all. 16 acres, 5000sqft main house, guest house, two barns, 15min to Lime Rock $1.100.000.
I am positive I can get the house today for $1M

We can build our own private go-kart track in the woods
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Well, I may not be a geography expert, but CT is pretty far from FL............ Plus, it snows there............ (Yuck!)

With that logic, you should move to the south pole........probably much less expensive.............. And, you can build a snow-mobile track.........

 

I don't see how any legislation in Tal will help....... It's simple supply and demand....... Florida has hurricanes that destroy stuff. Period. People pick locations on barrier islands, on the beach, flood prone areas, then whine when no one wants to insure them for less than what the insurance calculations show the potential exposure to the insurance industry would be if there were a storm.

Yeh, it definitely sucks........I know first hand - my house (policy more than doubled each year for the past 3 years) and my investment properties (some insurance has gone up 300% since last year!! - Nationwide dropped me, and I had to get another company)

I too wish there were some relief in sight, but I just don't see how you can get legislation that will help. Legislation wont change the risk characteristics of living here, the cost of construction, etc...

Oh, and by the way, insurance is the biggest scam out there (even before all this hurricane junk)............most policies are riddled with exceptions, exemptions and limitations for many other common claim types...........read your policy...........

 

We actually made the decison to nix homeowner's insurance since the house is paid off and we have the capital to cover anything major (outside of a total loss). Our rational was since most insurers did not have good enough capitalization, why bother. If there was a major hurricane, we probably would be like most Hurricane Katrina victims.

We recently found out we can have Citizens for a few months and then move to a decent insurer. We chose ASI as where we would go next.

Anyone have similiar experiences?
Thanks,
Peter

 

we have florida penninsula...but suspect i'm just throwing that premium money away...if big storm i suspect most of these companies will declare bankruptcy and walk away...

 

Spot on!

Cheers

 

I am in the same situation, paid off house, but recently terminated ASI after being with them a few years. I was referred to them by USAA, I am a member. But I luckily I checked at policy renewal time and compared to another company, called St. Johns. In their fine print, ASI will not reimburse the whole amount for pool cages/Lanai cages, and will not list it on the declarations page. They pay you a cash value, in my case amounted to about $8k. The difference with St. Johns, they will list the value, in my case $50k, we have a bigger cage, and list it how it should be on the declarations page. There are also other insurance oddities in the ASI policy, that they really
couldn't explain. I ended up getting more coverage than I had, through my Allstate guy for the same premium I was paying with ASI. Check it out. USAA still has the best Auto Insurance though, I checked...

 

I have Liberty Mutual for my homeowners and tried to add a condo that I inherited onto it today. They said they arent doing any additional policies in FL. My mom had ASI and the agent said that they should be able to change the policy to my name, but the premiums might go up since it is now considered vacation property. They said if I decided to use it as a rental property they might not be able to do it and have to send me to Citizens. Will have to call St Johns tommorrow and see what they say.

 

Definitely worth a phone call. PM if you need my agent name and phone number... Or I'm sure you can call them directly. Where in FL are you located?

 

I live in and love Atlantic Beach. It's a beach suburb of Jax. With Tower Hill insurance. Pay $2200 and change. Haven't heard any news of policies being dropped yet.

*fingers crossed*

 

Tower Hill just raised mine from $5200 to $7700. Good Luck.

 

If possible have a Windstorm Mitigation form filled out. I got the form about 10 years ago when I bought my house, but had no clue as to how to fill it out, since it wanted to know about roof type, types of nails, underlayment of rooF, and a bunch of other stuff and you need to have it certified by a licensed contractor.

About 5 years ago, my neighbor tolD me he got dropped and wanted to know who I was using for insurance. I told him the company name and told him I was paying about $3000 a year. He said he applied with another company that his insurance agent recommended and filled out the windstorm form and his went down to about $2000.

I then told him that I had the form but had no clue as to how it should be filled out. He looked at it and it was almost identical to the form that his company wanted, so he filled it out. My insurance dropped to about $1500.

I noticed that once I filled out the form they gave me a ton of discounts. They had me listed with the worst type of roof, wood construction instead of concrete block, shingle roof instead of tile, no alarm system or built in smoke detectors, no hurricane shutters, etc. So it appears that they automatically put you into the worst rating section unless they get the form to show what the house is actually made of. I had to send them about 10 pictures of the house from various angles, etc. but in the end it was worth it. I think you can get a contractor to do the form for a couple hundred bucks, but it will save you thousands in the long run.