Latest Sinkhole
 

Would this be an insurance covered sinkhole or an out of pocket sinkhole? Would the house have to have damage to be covered by insurance? Thanks

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The sinkhole on Galesburg Court is about 15 feet across and fairly deep.

I think that everyone’s homeowners insurance covers catastrophic sinkholes- meaning they order you to evacuate your home.

In this case, the people would have to have an additional ground subsidence endorsement to their homeowners policy. And there is a separate deductible for this type of thing.

Otherwise they are out of pocket.

I read in the news source that is not mentioned, that this is the second on that property, the first occurred after the avalanche of rain during Hurricane Irma in September.

Bad luck for those poor people.

It is an anomaly of nature and causes all of us to be jittery and some of us looking to blame something or someone.

What is the date of this hole? Recent or old?

Todays Villages News

My understanding (I may be wrong), your standard homeowners insurance has a clause and coverage for catastrophic ground collapse, which comes into play if your house is condemned. It does not cover sinkholes that do not cause the house to be condemned. This is covered by a supplemental policy , aka sinkhole coverage. Depending on your insurance carrier, you may or may not be able to buy this coverage, and the deductible apparently can be very low, or up to 10% of the value of you house.
IMHO, call your carrier, confirm what you have and what you have access to in additional coverage.

Is it true that only new homes are being offered the sinkhole coverage with high 10% deductibles? If you purchase a resale you can not get this additional coverage?

You need to talk to your insurance agent, I do not think this has anything to do with the age of the house.

Although they obviously mostly are natural occurrences sink holes can be human induced through ground water pumping, construction and property development as revealed toward the end of this short article. Sinkholes, from USGS Water-Science School

We bought a resale and our agent told us (last year when we purchased) that "VERY FEW companies are writing any sink-hole policies at all now". She did have one that did and it was just way too expensive. My location is very low risk so I decided to take a chance. The odds are quite low so I guess it depends on how risk averse one is. We are almost on top of a hill so I figure if there is a S.H. here our house would roll down the side so our homeowner would cover it. :D

The new-home-coverage-only thing is how it was for a while.

(I think that went into effect after there were so many claims for things that were not really sinkholes, but were cracks from normal settling, etc.

I always figured it was Claims-Milkers and litagators and a powerful Florida insurance lobby, and who knows what other kind of lobby, that resulted in what looked to me like a knee-jerk reaction from insurers that made it impossible for those who wanted to buy pre-owned homes to get anything beyond catastrophic ground collapse, even if they were willing to pay the higher cost.)

During that time, those who already had sinkhole coverage could still renew it.

BUT, THEN, somebody must have run the odds and decided it was worth it for insurance companies to get back into the biz of selling sinkhole coverage for pre-owned homes. Expensive though it may be, the last I heard, it could be had. That has been a relatively recent change, like maybe just a year or two ago. I assume that change back is still in effect.

If I were you, I would call one of The Villages Insurance offices, on-site, and get direct info. They know the territory, literally, as well as figuratively, and will give you far better and more accurate information than I can. (I am just some woman typing away on TOTV this morning because I am trying to avoid gathering up all our income tax stuff.)

Always, always, consider your source of information. :)

It is a NO brainer for those who can't afford $100k layout to fix a sink hole that doesn't affect the HOUSE, but whacks your driveway or land

The insurance is available if you shop--if its not available -good look selling your house to a person on a tight budget or a scaredy cat who can't get the insurance or can't spring for the premium

We live in the Village of Glenbrook and 2 weeks ago I checked with AAA and the Villages Insurance about obtaining Sink hole Coverage. Both agency's entered our address into their computer and we were told Sink Hole coverage is NOT available in your area. When we moved here in 2012 we thought we would be here for the rest of our days, now were considering moving again which is the last thing I wanted to do.

New sinkholes ???
 

In today's other on line news regarding glenbrook new sinkhole someone commented they just saw 3 new sinkholes on Markridge Loop in Pennecamp. The commenter added he/she was surprised there has been no news coverage. Just curious too

I do not live in TV (yet), but I am interested in why sometimes these are deemed "Sinkholes" and other times "catastrophic ground collapse". I would bet it has some legal or other connotation reference that one or the other party is trying to avoid (meaning, it is bad press for someone).

Are these both roses that smell the same?

No. One endangers the livability of the home and the safety of the occupants. The other is a big hole in the yard.

I see.... so if the mailbox falls in or a lake is drained or a sandtrap suddenly gets MUCH bigger - it is a sinkhole. And if the living room falls in it is a catastrophic ground collapse.

Did I get that straight? or did I get those reversed...

In Alaska, Which is worse, to be clawed and bitten by a bear, or gored by a moose?

There are natural dangers to man everywhere and insurance coverage too, unless we are self insured. It is a numbers game, not a scam.. No worries. We just have alligators and sinkholes and terrible lightning here in The Villages and people lined up to live here.

Gracie - Thanks for the info.

PS - given the choice I would go with the moose - they taste better than bear. I have faced both and ended up BBQing them both.

From your avatar, it looks like you are the one who was BBQ'ed. LOL :1rotfl:

Oh my goodness! Sometimes I read too fast and I thought for sure I had entered another dimension. I thought you wrote “gored by a morse.” And then I thought — who are you and what have you done with Gracie? (Insert charming smile here — a wicked one though it may be.)

About that getting clawed and bitten by a bear thing, well, at least I know that Medicare with a Plan F Supplement can be bought to cover such a possibility — for now.

Earlier in this thread, I wrote that I thought things had swung back to being able to buy additional, though expensive, sinkhole coverage to add to the catastrophic ground collapse in regular coverage. Later though, someone posted that they recently learned differently. Seems like getting to the actual facts of this matter would be an excellent lead for a cubby reporter — perhaps for The Daily Sun.

Risk tolerance varies for each of us, whether it be investing or jumping out of perfectly good airplanes or how much insurance we think we need. Whether we are talking about financial risk, the ability to self-insure, or simply the cost of sleep at night, we are all different.

I am respectful of the genuine concerns and questions of posters here and I hope the answers needed are coming with good solutions. There are those whose risk tolerance means they are perfectly willing to spend the money for the extra coverage and if they find out it truly cannot be bought, then they will think further and decide as individuals what lets them sleep at night.

The Villages has many wonderful things about it. I am certainly not TV bashing. I just wanted to say that I understand and appreciate questioning.

Wasn’t true in our case. We had a sinkhole inspection when we purchased our existing home one year ago and got coverage with a $5k deductible. State Farm.

First house new sinkhole coverage, second house new, could not get sinkhole coverage. Third house preowned was no when we bought, however three years later we just got notice we may be able to purchase sinkhole insurance this year.

perfectly said.

Sinkholes are scary. If I could not find a reputable insurance company to write sinkhole coverage on a property located in sinkhole country I certainly would not buy it.

I admit to being afraid of sinkholes. This IS an unusual time to have them here too.

I wonder if the enormous amount of water during Irma has anything to do with it. That was seven months ago.

I don't know. I don't like them.

State farm offers sinkhole insurance. We contacted Nathan Thomas (State Farm) over in Wildwood. It was around $238 with a 1% deductible. It covers not only sinkholes but ground settling if cracks start to occur in the house. It would covers the hole that just occurred in Pennecamp that was NOT touching the house. I just talked to them today and they reaffirmed this all. State Farm began writing home policies in Florida again in 2014. Since I had the up north, I moved my home owners policy back over to them. When we took out the policy last year, an inspection took place at my home. I believe I it was $35 that I had to pay. So.... there are some companies writing sinkhole insurance.

I got sinkhole coverage with Allstate. I decided on $1000 deductible but was offered $500 deductible.