Central Florida sits on the water aquifer and hence is more prone to sink holes. People in the Tampa area gave insurance companies fits over cracks found in their homes claiming sinkhole problems and rather than fight in court as to whether it was sinkhole or just the standard cracking which naturally occur due to settling insuranc companiese paid thousands of dollars to their insureds but the insured pocketed the money and did nothing. Sooo insurance companies decided to remove or alter their sinkhole coverage.
I am with a major writer and they offer catastrophic coverage meaning the event must be abrupt, the sinkhole must be visible, the sinkhole must have visibly damaged the home and the residence must be inhabitable... if all of the above do not occur you do not have a valid claim
I paid for an inspection and I am obtaining full sinkhole coverage upon my renewal. My homeowners insurance premium is about double what some have reported here but I worked in the insurance industry and so I understand the ramifications of going on the cheap. I had gone many years without any damage to my home until in 2001 when my home was subjected to a very wide and damaging hail loss in Minneapolis The insurance companies payout was about equal to the many years of premium payments made by me.
My sister-in-law lives in the Tampa area on a golf course and experienced a sinkhole loss which is now in the final stages of repair and the costs are well over $100,000 and climbing.
Choose carefully. I am as annoyed as anyone about the rising cost of homeowner insurance and/or the denial of coverages unless accompanied with additional premium. However this is the status in the state of Florida and Governor Scott sanctioned all of this so that Ctizens Property could relieve some of its obligations because even with reinsurance there isn't a sufficient amount availble by citizens to pay if a cat loss occurs and so the govenror is spreading the risks among other insurance carriers. Its that or taxpayers pay for homeowners losses What a State
|