Any Florida homeowners here? What are you doing about home insurance rates?

Our home in florida is part of an HOA. We had a hurricane claim for a substantial amount of roof damage. Our company could not cover all losses so they filed bankruptcy. FIGA steps in to cover those cases, but they move at snails pace and are not required to pay out necessarily. It is a bit of a scam. We paid our insurance, we have a validated claim and the insurance company accepts there was damage, but 3 years later still not a penny.
Another carrier in Fl went insolvent this week. If we think Fl insurance is high now, just wait…. We have not seen the ceiling yet.
 
CJE said:
Insurance is a scam. And worse; often a legally mandated scam. Insurance companies are in the business of taking money in - insurance companies are not in the business of giving money out. So they much prefer to do as much of the first as they can while doing as little of the second as they can possibly arrange. I blame Warren Buffet's re-thinking of the insurance business but who knows really?

I stopped buying home owners insurance years ago. If the risk is small enough for the insurance company to feel safe with taking it - why should I doubt their judgement? So I keep the premiums and take my own risk. One answer is to also do what insurance companies do - which is to dilute the risk by selling policies all over the place. Buy several houses and the risk that you will become homeless as a result of storm damage falls below even the very slight original risk.

In 30 years of paying my premiums I had three claims. All of which were denied by policy interpretation trickery. Oh; and a single business liability claim - also denied. I then reasoned: if I am, in fact; personally responsible for the cost of all "insured losses" - what do I need an insurance company for?
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Easy to do when one doesn't have a mortgage but hey it's a risk. I read quite a few people in those beach towns along the panhandle were self-insured and now homeless after the most recent hurricanes.
 
paulswagelock said:
Our home in florida is part of an HOA. We had a hurricane claim for a substantial amount of roof damage. Our company could not cover all losses so they filed bankruptcy. FIGA steps in to cover those cases, but they move at snails pace and are not required to pay out necessarily. It is a bit of a scam. We paid our insurance, we have a validated claim and the insurance company accepts there was damage, but 3 years later still not a penny.
Another carrier in Fl went insolvent this week. If we think Fl insurance is high now, just wait…. We have not seen the ceiling yet.
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It's only a matter of time before a Florida Governor starts campaigning for a national program similar to the National Flood Insurance program under the premise the many Americans will want to retire there. :rolleyes:

If he/she gets wildfire and tornado alley states on board that's a wrap. We're done.
 
atikovi said:
Maybe change building codes so homes are built to withstand winds of 125 mph without any damage and winds of 175 mph without structural damage. And of fireproof materials.
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Florida did update their code so roofs are more likely to sustain damage vs getting pulled off. In any case as populations increase in high risk areas the claims will increase as well.

Fire prone areas may have to update their code to the chagrin of homeowners who want to live in a cheaper log home or homes with wood siding.
 
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I don't see Sarasota even being that risky of an area for Hurricane damage. South Florida yes but not there on the Gulf so much.

I won't compain about my $817 annual premium with 1% deductible in San Antonio.
 
Luckily my insurance only went up 6%, I am using Tower Hill which is AM Best rated albeit they just got downgraded to B+.. so that outlook isn't great. Being in South Florida its almost impossible to even find an AM Best Rated HOI company...
 
Last thing we need or should tolerate is another money losing government program. But the discussion seems to focus on state program and not federal if the people in the state agree and want to pay the price so be it.
As it is, the national Federal Flood Insurance program is in the red (as usual) and raising rates to pay back the US taxpayers that it OWES billions of dollars to. It should have never been allowed to borrow the money in the first place. But that is government and why any program is a money loser that helps people make poor choices.

Hey, either you live in a safe area or not, if you chose not to then you have to pay in case of destruction. Other people should not have to pay for your choices, lets keep that in mind.
 
I have friends who live in Near St. Augustine.
  • A mile away from a river
  • 3 miles from the ocean
  • Official St. Augustine elevation is 7’
  • Friends home is approx 10’ above sea level
A hurricane storm surge can easily be over 10’. With a slow moving, strong low pressure system during a high tide and full moon like in Katrina, you can go over 30’.

I cannot live in an area where multiple hurricanes can arrive in the fall with the potential to erase large swaths of neighborhoods. My friends community near St. Augustine is surrounded by swamps, estuaries, very flat, and is too close to the ocean for it not to be heavily affected if a moderate hurricane lands on top of them, which will eventually happen.

Odds like these are too much for me and probably a major reason insurance companies are pulling out of the area or raising prices sky high.

In addition with rising ocean temps and the possibility climate change hits as hard as some predict, the South East could face some significant hurricanes.

No offense to Floridians, I am guess you are used to it and maybe I don’t fully understand the topic. I think self insuring into an ETF is a good option instead of massive rates.
 
CJE said:
Insurance is a scam. And worse; often a legally mandated scam. Insurance companies are in the business of taking money in - insurance companies are not in the business of giving money out. So they much prefer to do as much of the first as they can while doing as little of the second as they can possibly arrange. I blame Warren Buffet's re-thinking of the insurance business but who knows really?

I stopped buying home owners insurance years ago. If the risk is small enough for the insurance company to feel safe with taking it - why should I doubt their judgement? So I keep the premiums and take my own risk. One answer is to also do what insurance companies do - which is to dilute the risk by selling policies all over the place. Buy several houses and the risk that you will become homeless as a result of storm damage falls below even the very slight original risk.

In 30 years of paying my premiums I had three claims. All of which were denied by policy interpretation trickery. Oh; and a single business liability claim - also denied. I then reasoned: if I am, in fact; personally responsible for the cost of all "insured losses" - what do I need an insurance company for?
Click to expand...
You certainly need liability insurance even if you want to self insure the structure.

Insurance it's not a scam. It's all about risk.
 
atikovi said:
Maybe change building codes so homes are built to withstand winds of 125 mph without any damage and winds of 175 mph without structural damage. And of fireproof materials.
Click to expand...
This. Insurance is a way to "average out" the damage across multiple insured, over a long time, in a wide area, for the ones who aren't big enough to cover them by themselves. Large employers will self insure and only use the insurance companies for the claim services, it is much harder to do with home owner insurances.

When you average out a bunch of high risk homes (hurricanes, wild fires, earth quakes, tornados, etc), you cannot average your way out of the risk. So mandating home to be build to a better standard really is the only way to address it. 125mph, deep foundation, not on sand, not on a sinking area, high enough to address storm surge or rising sea level, mag 8.0 earth quake, 500 ft away from wilderness, etc.
 
Donald said:
You could be sued by a neighbor knocking at your front door or electrician or UPS driver or a girl selling Girl Scout Cookies if they slipped on your walkway.
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One thing to sue, another to win. They still have to prove negligence. If they slipped they weren't watching where they were going.
 
Donald said:
You could be sued by a neighbor knocking at your front door or electrician or UPS driver or a girl selling Girl Scout Cookies if they slipped on your walkway.
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I know someone who had a problem tenant and was looking to evict. But then he threatened to sue over one thing or another and my friend called the insurer (for a rental homeowner policy), where the policy had a $750,000 liability limit. Called up the insurance company about it, and they said they had attorneys and would defend against the liability. More or less "Let him try and we'll bury him."
 
Dave Hess said:
Go with no insurance and save the premiums for when you need a need a new roof.

HOA will probably require it….. but non HOA it’s best to skip it.

The likelihood of a catastrophic loss due to a natural gas leak and the house blows up is very, very small.
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HOA's require homeowners insurance???
 
I’d also consider selling. How much money does it make you vs selling it outright? Self-insuring a rental is a terrible idea from a liability standpoint unless you don’t have any assets other than the rental property and don’t mind losing it. $2500 a year seems like a deal for insuring anything in Florida.
 
I don't have a mortgage on my FL house. I carry only the coverage I feel I need, which saves money. The replacement value of a roof, or even the entire structure is far lower than the current sale price of the home.
 
Oddly enough, my friends house in Cape Coral FL has lower home insurance than mine in the TX hill country. Both houses are appraised/worth about the same amount, and are about the same age.
 
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