Originally Posted by swimdawg (Post 450784)

Yes, you were the smart one.

You can now relax. Enjoy that popcorn.

Originally Posted by The Village Girl (Post 451099)

Oh dear.... do tell us where you live so we can stay clear.

Oh wait... I think I found your house when I was driving around tonight. :1rotfl::1rotfl::1rotfl:

http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y27...troyedHome.jpg

Originally Posted by Happinow (Post 450914)

Nope. But I'm a fast learner!

Originally Posted by Mark1130 (Post 451128)

I, like many others here I am sure, mad a mad dash to my insurance policy to see how my coverage was worded.

My agent told me when I bought the policy I had sinkhole coverage. It does state on one line item under Premium Adjustments a charge of $25.00 for sinkhole loss coverage.

Someone reassure me before I call my agent that this is the accepted sinkhole coverage.

Originally Posted by CarGuys (Post 451183)

Yep looking FORWARD to the time to slow down, Say I wonder if those gophers in my yard are the sink hole culprits!

Anyone seen my lake? It disappeared?

:shocked: :1rotfl::1rotfl:

Originally Posted by senior citizen (Post 451219)

Just for our own personal knowledge I typed in "sink holes in Marion County" into the search engine and came up with a company that repairs them.

"SECURE FOUNDATION SYSTEMS THE SINKHOLE EXPERTS".

After their long advertisment and explanation is a MOVABLE MAP of all the areas in and around Marion County and actually all of central Florida showing where the sinkholes are. Red dots and the yellow dots....or circles.

I tried to "send the link" but it wouldn't work. I tried to copy and paste the entire article to here, but ditto, it wouldn't work. So, for whomever is concerned before building or buying........you can move the map around and see where other sinkholes have occurred.

Try typing in the company name. I believe they are in Marion County. Not looking at their ad right at the moment. It would have been easier to include the hyperlink....for sure.

Sinkholes of Marion County, FL | SFSI in Ocala & Spring Hill FL

THIS TIME I WAS ABLE TO ADD THE HYPERLINK......or just type this in.

Originally Posted by lovsthosebigdogs (Post 451093)

That's quite a collection of stories to tell. How many days have you lived here?

Originally Posted by senior citizen (Post 451261)

Apparently , as I just discovered, the sinkholes are not that much of a secret, dating back quite a few years. If one was buying a resale, would the realtor divulge that other sinkholes had formed in the area?

Even if only on a golf course, it could prove dangerous. Again, we don't want to have our heads in the sand and end up not covered by insurance if it ever did happen. I'm not losing any sleep over it, but then again, if one looks at the photos and really ponders that this could happen........what then?

Surprise! More sinkholes in The Villages

Originally Posted by l2ridehd (Post 450648)

I now understand why the Daily Sun doesn't report it. And next time I will ignore it as well. :icon_wink:

Originally Posted by janmcn (Post 451286)

I am not a geologist, only an observationist. There seems to be a direct correlation between pumping large amounts of water out of the ground and sinkholes. For instance, when there are hard freezes in Polk county and sprinklers are being run several nights in a row to protect the strawberry plants, then hundreds of sinkholes develop shortly thereafter.

Quoting from Tampa Bay Times: "Heavy rains, massive pumping of groundwater and other factors can speed sinkhole formation, but Florida's Swiss-cheese geology and sandy soil have remained the same for eons. Thus no natural events explain the explosion in sinkhole claims in the past five years".

Originally Posted by Bill32 (Post 451060)

Could you give me the name of your carrier? My insurance carrier cancelled my policy.

Originally Posted by Bill-n-Brillo (Post 451077)

Spk, I'm not sure what they did for that inspection as I wasn't present. I do know that they needed to look around inside the house - I made arrangements with our homewatch person to be there to let the inspector in. Externally, I believe all they looked for was any obvious cracking in the observable foundation, sidewalk/driveway, etc. I think our insurance agent also mentioned that they check with whatever source for reports of previous sink hole occurrences in the surrounding area.

Wish I had more specifics for you - sorry!

Bill :)

Originally Posted by graciegirl (Post 451210)

We have your gophers figured out. They are Turtle mounds.

They are also protected. BUT you can move them I think.

Originally Posted by VillagesFlorida (Post 451543)

The insurance gal at Allstate told us the other day that no company is writing sinkhole coverage any longer on homes in Marion County. I wonder if those who have it now will have probelms getting their coverage renewed?

Originally Posted by senior citizen (Post 451645)

I "hear you" however, in our town of 16,000 people, I'm fairly certain that our daily local newspaper would indeed write about a sinkhole swallowing up the front lawn, the porch, the backyard, the golf course, or God forbid, the house, even if it was a minor sinkhole. Now, I agree they might not cover a small thing like a power outage......but since we have volunteer firemen, they do cover a story of a clothes dryer in a home that catches on fire, etc.

It's news to some people I guess.

Again, it's nothing to lose sleep over, however, it is wise to be knowledgeable on the facts of sinkholes and those maps sort of tell the story (some areas are more vulnerable than others).

As far as getting coverage, from what I've been reading, it's near impossible to get sinkhole insurance coverage...which would mean the homeowner would lose their investment. Most people who sell their northern homes put down that "profit" onto the home in THE VILLAGES..........thus, they would lose their lifetime of equity from a fully paid up northern home.

It all boils down to.....how much is one willing to risk "if" the worse case scenario ever occurred. Only individual property owners & potential buyers know what they would do. Again, every area has "something" worth pondering..........and yet again, in some areas the good outweigh the bad.

It's all a personal preference.

Originally Posted by Barefoot (Post 451620)

Our agent explained that sinkhole coverage has increased a lot in cost so we pay a higher policy rate for our renewal (Sumter County). We've been with this company for five years. He said that sinkhole coverage isn't available for new policies being written. I find this hard to believe.

Originally Posted by senior citizen (Post 451721)

We just both like to keep well informed. Actually, this morning we were looking at all the virtual tours of the newest model homes and loved them all.

Again, not losing sleep over the sinkholes. We've never been hasty to come to a final decision, preferring to do our research ahead of time.

We've always vacationed in Florida for the past 47 years of our marriage, but central Florida is a hidden gem for sure. Sinkholes or not.

We like the fact that TV is surrounded by lakes and horse farms and very very GREEN.........plus the home designs and prices can't be beat....again, we were very impressed with The Villages..........more so than we thought we might be. However, we still feel we should know everything about the area that there is to know. Common sense, no matter what our age.

ACTUALLY, we kept reminding each other that we have many options and should not rush into anything. Having owned many many homes in our lifetime and remodeled many of them, we want this final purchase to be just that.

Having lived in Florida twice before, in the early 1970's and again in the early 1990's, returning both times to Vermont.........we also have to decide do we want to move full time or just be snow birds. We have options.

We are constantly discussing it. Our plan at the moment is to take a long leisurely road trip and check out other areas on the way down to THE VILLAGES again........both seacoast and foothills of the Carolina mountains, etc.

Having JUST retired a year ago, we want to enjoy the journey before we put our present home on the market for sale in a not so great real estate climate up here..........so doing the research ahead of time is a "natural thing" for both of us. When the sinkhole controversy came up, it was very natural to do the research on it. I did read that scientific minds seem to think it is on the increase.

p.s. Every town has something worrisome or not so great about it; up here everyone has the right to free speech and to express an opinion or to question or look into things that might be negatives........we don't disallow other opinions if they question why Vermont has so many pot holes and frost heaves. We sold our last house to a Floridian who was just escaping Andrew back in 1994. It was a beautiful house; she compared it to a Florida house which it was not.........Florida doesn't have to deal with frost and sub zero temps. Anyway, I appreciated all the input about the sinkholes, maps and the difficulty in getting insurance for such and all the private messages as well on the subject. NOT EVERYTHING IS A JOKE IN LIFE. SOME PEOPLE DO NOT WANT TO LOSE THEIR ENTIRE INVESTMENT. THANKS.

Originally Posted by KEVIN & JOSIE (Post 451783)

:agree: My home equity is a lifetime of work and savings. To invest in a property only to be told that "maybe"you can insure, and get true full coverage of your assets, is not good enough for me. And to be told down the road as claims increase, that we will no longer cover you against loss, is not good enough. A red flag went up when I checked for homeowners insurance with all of the large companies, and found that none of them would write a policy in Florida. They would refer you to the smaller carriers. My current company, whom I've been with for 20 years, would not write a policy there. True, we will all die, and none of this will matter, but if a catostrophic loss happens in my senior years, it does matter!

Originally Posted by KEVIN & JOSIE (Post 451783)

:agree: My home equity is a lifetime of work and savings. To invest in a property only to be told that "maybe"you can insure, and get true full coverage of your assets, is not good enough for me. And to be told down the road as claims increase, that we will no longer cover you against loss, is not good enough. A red flag went up when I checked for homeowners insurance with all of the large companies, and found that none of them would write a policy in Florida. They would refer you to the smaller carriers. My current company, whom I've been with for 20 years, would not write a policy there. True, we will all die, and none of this will matter, but if a catostrophic loss happens in my senior years, it does matter!

Originally Posted by VillagesFlorida (Post 451660)

Are you saying that you were informed that sinkhole coverage is no longer available in Sumter County? We are in the process of switching insurance companies and we are able to get sinkhole coverage. We live in Sumter County. I was told that very few insurance companies will insure for sinkhole loss.

Originally Posted by janmcn (Post 451796)

This is why Citizens Insurance, the state run insurer of last resort was established and now has become the largest insurer in Florida. All the large insurance companies, State Farm, Nationwide, etc. stopped writing policies in the coastal counties within the last five years. Do you know when the last hurricane hit Tampa? 1921 That's right 90 years ago. The Villages has had more hurricanes than Tampa.

Originally Posted by Advogado (Post 452324)

Here is a very good POA article on the subject: http://www.poa4us.org/bulletins_file...etin201105.pdf

However, since it is from last May, it may not be up to date on the availability of insurance coverage.