Quote:
Originally Posted by CSwofford147@comcast.net
In a hand out from the State of Florida it states( How do I know whether my policy excludes sinkhole coverage. Policies that exclude sinkhole coverage will have the following wording on the Declarations page: Your policy provides coverage for a catastrophic ground cover collapse that results in the property being condemned and uninhabitable. Otherwise, your policy does not provide coverage for sinkhole losses.
You may purchase additional coverage for sinkhole losses for an additional premium.) The statement that you can purchase additional coverage for sinkhole losses is a fraudulent statement. In order to purchase sinkhole coverage you must have the property inspected and to my knowledge there are very few properties that pass. The criteria is based on all most solely in the Villages on the score on the Sinkhole Index. It goes from 0 to 800 with 800 being the most impacted by ground subsidence activity. I your home is to my knowledge within a couple of miles of sinkhole activity you will receive a rating of 700 and will get a letter that you home is uninsurable. I have never gotten a definitive answer as to how close your home has to be to sinkhole activity to be denied insurance but is my understanding that there are very few homes in the Villages that pass. This denial of insurance is based on the location of the property and it is known to the inspection company and the insurance agent before they go out on these inspections that the property is uninsurable. If you have sinkhole damage and have the wording in your policy stated above and your home is damaged but not condemned by the county authorities you will be responsible for the cost of all damages. This can easily run between $100,000 and $200,00 dollars. This information is known to the Villages when they sell you homes but they withhold this material fact because they think it will be bad for business.
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Several things wrong with this. First, unless the TV sales reps are licensed insurance agents, they cannot legally tell you what kind of insurance coverages you could get on a particular property, nor can they tell you what would be denied or written by a particular insurance company. This would be misrepresentation.
Secondly, when we bought our resale home and were getting ready for closing several years ago, we called on The Villages Insurance (independent agency
owned by TV) at LSL, to get the homeowner insurance quote.
They quoted us American Integrity Ins. Co. of FL, and
one of the first things they pointed out in all the supplemental coverages THEY
automatically built into the quote was "Sinkhole" coverage. I did not ask for it and in fact, I had to ask what it was for when they listed all the supplemental coverages they automatically quoted.
Attached here are photos of our same policy we've had since purchase, and these photos are of pertinent sections of the renewal policy we paid for last month.
Page 1 lays it out clearly "The definition for "Catastrophic Ground Cover Collapse" has been further defined, and changed to restrict coverage to the "Principal Building."...... See below.
In my opinion it is telling that the o.p.'s TOTV member stats page includes Class Acton lawsuit correspondence from the head of the POA, mentioning Class Action lawsuit potential now for sinkholes.
See actual policy coverages and language in policy renewed last month:
First photo shows "Sinkhole" coverage = "Yes" and the added premium for that is $249 (well worth it!!!)
This is PAGE 1 of the renewed insurance policy, and it couldn't get any more clear than this: