Florida Homeowners Insurance Help!
 

In looking at some other items, we noticed the other day that our homeowners in Florida lapsed. We never saw any kind of notice on it. No problem, called the agent to get it reinstated. She got back to us and the cost SKYROCKETED due to the insurance lapsing (it was actually last April). The insurance gal said that we maybe did not get notice because of Covid (which I thought was odd). Anyway, she said there is only one market that would consider us and it was very pricey. I do not trust these folks.

Is there anybody in here that is in the Florida (Cape Coral) homeowners insurance business?

Thanks in advance!

Not in Cape Coral, but worth a call. This is the firm I send my people to here on the east side.

The Sena Group
Boca Raton
561-391-4661

I think Stephanie handles the NOI.

Greg

I had Frontline Ins. They basically raised all of their FL customer by roughly 50%. That is not the norm. I switched to Allstate.

FL insurance is rough right now. We pretty much shed all our H03 policies to reduce large exposure. People are pissed but nothing we can do.

Most everyone is being turned to Citizens which will be a disaster in years to come.

I had dinner tonight with my insurance guy...........the lapse in coverage essentially forces you to buy from Citizens and they have a max house value of 700K

Citizens is the bottom of the barrel but that's the only thing available for a lot of people

Our house is a vintage (nicely remodeled) mid 60's where most of the value is in the dirt (canal in South Cape-no bridges). I think on a $6,000 premium, about $5,000 is wind and hail. With a metal roof and trusses strapped very well, I'd almost take on that risk. Of course we have flood insurance on top of it, but which would come first, the water or the wind?

I dont understand why a lapse in coverage would keep other companies from insuring us.

Sherzer and Associates (cape coral) who insures us at this time. Very helpful
239-673-9301

Our house is a vintage (nicely remodeled) mid 60's where most of the value is in the dirt (canal in South Cape-no bridges). I think on a $6,000 premium, about $5,000 is wind and hail. With a metal roof and trusses strapped very well, I'd almost take on that risk. Of course we have flood insurance on top of it, but which would come first, the water or the wind?

I dont understand why a lapse in coverage would keep other companies from insuring us.

Call Matic, they do business with most all insurance companies that do business in Florida. They also have a program to quote all at once to see which would be the best. (833) 382-1304 https://matic.com/

So canal home 3/2 pool valued at up to a mil or so, so back off the bays a bit, in south Florida, what’s the insurance cost? Roughly?

On our side 5-6k all in for a structure of about 300-500k. Lot is most of the value on sub-$1mm WF homes.

This big issue is one big storm and Citizens won't be able to fund the payouts. I work the claims side and even Citizens knows this but with so little options for a lot of home owners they have to keep accepting policies and it is setting up to get really ugly.

Thanks for the info.
My realtor is looking at a house for me today in Palm Bay. I used their site & looks like I can expect to pay around $5.5-6.5k through companies I never heard of. Is this normal in the area? I had planned to stick with State Farm unless their rate was ridiculous.

I am seriously thinking about dropping wind/hail. A few years back I had a metal roof installed with all new sheeting nailed every 6” and water guard over 100% of it. It is a very simple 1500 ft cinder block house. Since we do rent it out some, my bigger fear/exposure is liability.

That's not horrible. We're on the beach in So. Cal and It's only a little less in the same situation with land worth more than home.

Is it cheaper on the Gulf side?

It varies with the area and ease of blue water access. Even places that offer nearly identical intercostal and gulf access, one bridge can create a 500K+ difference. The cool thing about performance boats is their low profile makes most bridges irrelevant.

My bad. I thought you were referring to property values.

I think Dade/Broward/Palm Beach benefit from the newer building codes (after Andrew in 1992) and subsequent updates so the insurance companies like that but I'd guess all of S Florida is in the zone of "no thanks!"

One the biggest issues are lawsuits. Guys will actually canvas neighborhoods promising new roofs, then sue the insurance companies on your behalf for "past roof damage that you never realized." Your roof doesn't leak but their "experts" will show it was compromised by high winds and of course it needs full replacement. Ins companies are getting picky, not wanting to insure older roofs/older homes against plumbing failures trying to limit their exposure.

State Farm won't want Florida even if you are a 20 yr client. Most of the companies you have never heard of .............went from Olympus to Tip Tap, never heard of either but its my same agent representing both.

Our house is a 3/2 on a canal and is valued at about 850K... my homeowners is $2450 and flood ins is $1250... ;)

36Tango, I'll PM you the contact info for a few of my buddies, either of them can most likely help you...

My house is around $350,000 value, 400 ft from water, with yearly insurance premiums $9720 a year... FEMA sent me a letter few years back stating my house was artificially low on yearly premiums, and it would increase yearly by 11% until it was correctly valued premium wise. The house is older, built in 1954,but has a new metal roof, and no drywall whatsover in the entire 1000 square foot area of the house, only concrete block and plaster interior wise. Florida insurance is FRAUD !!
The flood portion alone on my house is $5400 due to being in a so called flood zone, my neighbor across the street is just outside of so called flood zone (same elevation) and pays only $400 for flood portion... makes no sense. Have called many other insurance companies and they all come up with same ballpark quote.

Old School, if you could, Would love contacts too... on a 30 year loan, my insurance premiums alone could buy a whole nother house and property!!!

Have you tried getting a elevation study done and then file a LAMO with FEMA?.

We had to do this to prove we were not in the high risk flood zone. I also live on a canal, 3/2 older block home built in 1972. But I do have a strapped gable roof, metal, and all wind code improvements We have to comply to the same as (Dade county).

Our insurance went up 37% this year to just under $2700. With Tower Hill but my agent said the same to me that JP said, insurance companies are starting to not want older homes and she said they make home owners replace roofs every 5 years.

.

Bingo...this is what I do for a living.

AOB contract roof vendors and EMS companies, public adjusters, and the lawyers that work with them are the 100% issue with FL insurance.

Floridas make up 7% of all claims filed in the USA but 78% of the total claims brought to suit and in court. There is a GIANT issue in Florida and it will be a long time till it is fixed.

Get mad at insurance companies all you want but the fly by night law suit happy contractors, public adjuster, and their teams are the people you should be mad at.

Not roofs but I am amazed at what some people turn into insurance for a claim. Some stuff that I just always figured was on me.

Unfortunately, that's the world that we are now living in...

I probably should have added that, to get the premium that I have, I carry a $5000 deductable. That tells the underwriter that if my neighbors Grandson throws a ball through my window or I have a little drywall damage, I'm not gonna make a claim! LOL

I did have an elevation evaluation done, using the same company that did my neighbors survey, (the company that ended up making their flood insurance part $400 a year).
When I turned that in to my insurance company, thinking my premiums would also be dropping, they told me they would leave the old survey in the folder as my rates would be a lot higher than they are now if they used the new survey.... makes no sense to me.

I also have a $5000 deductible

They value the replacement value of my house at $176,000, so on a 30 year loan, basically I could have bought 2 replacement homes from my premiums alone....
At least that is the way I look at it :lolhit:

WRONG! My father had Allstate for 25 years without a claim in Dade and Broward counties. When Andrew hit the screen enclosure pulled away from the house. The Allstate adjuster only wanted to pay for the facia and reattachment of the enclosure to it, when in all actuality there was physical damage and cracking the the screen enclosure. Allstate was pressed to pay for it all and promptly dropped him after. If the insurance companies were servicing their customers rather than investors we wouldn't need those you say to blame!

Your one case does not support what i stated and this is what I do everyday for a living. Also you are very welcome to read the numerous documents that support whatI I said as they are published and is why we are having homeowners reform currently here. It has NOTHING to do with what you mentioned.

I am sorry for your father issue moons ago but it has zero to do with my statement and what it meant.

Andrew hit in 1992, 29 years ago.

Today most insurance companies will not insure the screen enclosure itself. If it "kites in the wind" then oh well.

Funny story, 2004 FL got hit with 2 hurricanes in 38 days (Frances/Jean). Real estate was hustling, everything was selling/flipping the next day etc. Guy from NY was ADAMANT he close on his house prior to one of the hurricanes. His screen enclosure was not installed yet. Guys were installing the enclosure as the storm was closing in laughing that this was the stupidest idea in the world. Well the storm hit, the enclosure blew away. The guy owned the house at that point and he had to wait months for another enclosure to be built AND it cost about 30% more than the first one! Guy didn't enjoy one sunset with that first enclosure. Smart move would have been to hold the install until after the storm. Then he would have had it installed, not spent a dollar extra and moved on with his life.

WE Insure Ashley Duckett Ft Myers 239-320-8018 handles water fronts

I have 4 houses in FL. and look at the cost of wind/flood and pass. I am carrying liability only and taking the risk. I look around at the old shacks still standing after a hundred years and the odds are on my side for sure. I had a friend get flooded out in Jax two years ago "self insured" and FEMA gave him a 1% fixed term loan to rebuild with-not sure if he would have been eligible if he had traditional coverage. Note-all of the properties are high including the water front property and all of them have steel roofs with hurricane straps which also helps mitigate my odds.

Joe

You certainly have that option when you own the properties outright. Mortgage companies don't want to "self insure!" In a perfect world I'd love to have an older waterfront home and self insure, the value is in the lot anyway. I paid off my current house in 2018 but I can't see the risk vs reward on self insuring when full coverage is only a few thousand a year. I'd only save a couple thousand getting rid of windstorm/flood. Flood I think is $400 a year currently.

There are plenty of beachfront homes with zero windstorm/flood coverage. The other big "glitch" in the system is the deductibles. If you have a 5mm oceanfront home with a 2% deductible, you are on the hook for the first 100K in damage before they will even send out a claims adjuster. So if the insurance is 40K a year on the house, no hurricanes for 5 years you just blew 200K for nothing, now in year 6 a storm hits you spend another 40K in coverage and 100K deductible you are 340K deep in "Insurance" before they even write a $1 check. 340K in premiums/deductibles would cover a substantial amount of damage. Of course it won't cover total devastation or a roof that blew off and suddenly you have an open sky floorplan.

I think you are the first and only person I know defending insurance companies!!! lol

insurance companies blow!!! No offense.

No offense taken at all.

Over all I get the frustration with insurance companies but people don't see our side and reason why their rates and coverages suck. They yell only at the insurance company without knowing what is driving the changes and issues.

As I said in FL the lawsuits and public adjusters have made what FL insurance is. They are not fighting for their client, they are fighting to get them self paid and paid well.

When you need a roof the average price in FL should be about $450 -$500 a square for a shingle roof. Yet your public adjuster and lawyers will inflate that cost to around $1100 a square and sue for it. This now adds court cost and fees too. Florida regulation is broken. There needs to be a complete reform but it can't happen over night. If we keep the current conditions no one will be able to have insurance in Florida as no company will be able to stay afloat and pay claims. Why do you think we already have little to no insurance openings here?


I am.not telling you insurance companies are good, I am pointing out there is a lot more to it that people fail to realize.

This is almost word for word what my agent says, he is actually a friend of mine. He said 3 more companies he used to quote have pulled out of Florida completely. No renewals/no new policies. His comment on going without coverage: It's a great idea until it's not! He said when the panic sets in you will see a bunch of uninsured (windstorm) homes suddenly having huge fires (fire would be covered). :D

Like personal injury lawyers, they are getting their clients money but at the same time collecting 1/3 of the settlement for themselves. Nate's example doubled the cost of the actual roof, plus fees. PI cases are adding 33% to the settlement, plus Dr's fees/medical bills etc.

Also remember Florida is surrounded by 3 sides by warm water and is in the hurricane alley........

https://www.boston.com/news/real-est...p_featurestack
Article highlighting major changes in Flood insurance rates

One of his clients is Marti Beller Lazear, who is buying a house on Treasure Island, a slender strip of land off the coast of St. Petersburg. Her annual cost for flood insurance will eventually jump from $3,903 to $10,655 under the new rates. For example, Jennifer Zales, a real estate agent who lives in Tampa, pays $480 a year for flood insurance. Under the new system, her rates will eventually reach $7,147, according to Jake Holehouse, her insurance agent.

This is just FLOOD insurance which was ridiculously cheap. Windstorm is usually the biggest insurance expense.

I just got my renewal form in the mail. Price more than doubled for a house in Cape Coral on a freshwater canal. I have had no claims in the 2 years that I have owned the home. I will start calling around today and report what i find.

In Florida, a lot of it is your wind mitigation report. Do you have impact windows? Do you have roof straps? Good roof? You can get windows and there are also guys that come in after the fact and do roof strapping as well. Roof strapping (About $2000-3000) alone is a 1-1.5 year ROI.

Another thing is to ditch the interior/valuables policy, of course, if you own a bunch of expensive stuff okay, but you can re-do a whole house (furnishings) on Wayfair and get 70 inch flat screen tv's these days for next to nothing so why bother if it saves you $1500-3500 a year. Last, increase the deductible, it wont matter anyway if the "big one" hits.

At the end of the day about 85% of policies in Florida are Citizens anyway. So realistically, you can shop all you want, unless they are gouging you, you will see all the honest guys are within $150 of each other with similar assigned values and deductibles. FWIW, Citizens hiked their rates about 10% in July too.

^^^^ all good info. The link I posted yesterday was about the overhaul in the Flood insurance pricing, only one place to buy that.

The windstorm info is 100% correct but they are even getting weird about old roofs. If the roof is too old they won't insure it (knowing a tropical storm will likely cause it to leak).

The interior valuables is way way way overlooked by most people. My former agent had my interior contents insured for 200K! Now when you actually read your policy, start with what is NOT covered (tools, guns, electronics past $2000 total, art, jewelry, oriental rugs etc). So now what do you have left: couches/tables/bedroom sets? That junk isn't worth 200K. My current insurance guy says most homes you could refurnish for less than 50K (chain furniture stores like Rooms to Go type stuff).

Somewhat of a funny story, we used to buy expensive well build furniture. I stopped that years ago because my wife gets bored with the look and we end up selling the stuff for pennies on the dollar.

Its rooms to go type of stuff now.