[VMI-74]

Just bought a villa in Hemingway with my Mom. We have a house also bought 3 years ago. We have sink hole coverage but were told 2 weeks after closing that insurance companies were no longer writing sink hole coverage in 32162 zip code. They were offering it prior to our closing and 2 weeks later, NOT! If anyone knows of a company that will add this coverage, please let me know.

Thanks Kathy and Ruth

[tv2016]

I'm buying a house in Sunset Pointe and have only found one company that offers sinkhole coverage (in addition to the required catastrophic coverage). Does anyone have any experience with Southern Insurance Group or Universal Property and Casualty Insurance Company?

A few other companies will inspect the house for $70 after the policy is in place and then decide if they are willing to offer sinkhole coverage. I think most decide they are not willing.

[KEVIN & JOSIE]

Was the sinkhole filled and repaired, or are there people working on it?

[Carla B]

TV 2016:

I have no experience with claims with Universal Property & Casualty as of yet, but they are the only one we found that would insure owners of rental condos in South FL east of I-95. To me that is not a very good recommendation. They must have thousands of properties E of 95 on their rolls and a hurricane with large property losses could wipe them out.

That is what happened to Southern Family Insurance/Poe Companies a few years ago. The state had to step in and pay the claims. (Of course, the Poe family also diverted premiums to their personal accounts and declared them to be dividends But even if they hadn't raided premiums they still wouldn't have been able to cover all the losses.) Our condo association was one of the claimants following Hurricane Wilma when Southern Family/Poe went insolvent and it took some time to get a negotiated settlement with the state. The good thing is that Florida backs up these companies, the bad thing is we all pay for it in surcharges and higher premiums.

Did Universal quote a premium and did it seem out of line with quotes of companies who would write insurance, except for sinkhole?

[CarGuys]

Will there be a Grandfather clause for those of us who have a paid up policy now in place?

Just wondering Russ!

[shcisamax]

I don't know if this is completely out of the question but it doesn't seem there is THAT great of an incidence in TV of sinkholes. That said, when it happens to you, it is devastating. And everyone wants the peace of mind of coverage. Is there any sort of mechanism that TV could put in place where The Villagers, themselves, contribute to a fund which would cover in the event of a sinkhole. There are how many homes? 40,000? and if everyone contributed $100 a year, that would be $4,000,000. Certainly enough to handle rebuilding 10 homes at $400,000 apiece which is probably on the high side? I am just playing with figures and really have no idea how many homes are there or what the average cost is but it just seemed ridiculous that insurance companies make us all nuts and maybe we can self insure.

[Russ_Boston]

Originally Posted by CarGuys

Will there be a Grandfather clause for those of us who have a paid up policy now in place?

Just wondering Russ!

There was in my instance.

[Carla B]

I talked to someone in TV who had a sinkhole claim on their designer home. Their cost out of pocket would have been $102,000. You don't have to rebuild the entire house if it's not catastrophic ground collapse. You have to stabilize the foundation by drilling tunnels and filling them and then repairing sheetrock etc. to make the house plumb again. The house required 27+ tunnels, I believe.

Re self insurance: our condo association would have been happy to self-insure but Florida law bans condos from doing that. However, I think it would be worth exploring in TV, since these are single family homes. I just looked at our condo budget and see that we pay a total of $335,000, per year which equals $840. per owner and that only takes care of the outside and the common areas. We pay another $800+ for liability and dwelling coverage which only covers the interior.

Another thought, I was wondering how the new homes in Sanibel, Fernandina etc. are getting sinkhole coverage if most companies are no longer writing in Sumter Co. Or is it that they are not writing in zip code 32162? If so, aren't the houses south of 466A in a different zip code? Just curious.

[CTgolfer]

Originally Posted by shcisamax

I don't know if this is completely out of the question but it doesn't seem there is THAT great of an incidence in TV of sinkholes. That said, when it happens to you, it is devastating. And everyone wants the peace of mind of coverage. Is there any sort of mechanism that TV could put in place where The Villagers, themselves, contribute to a fund which would cover in the event of a sinkhole. There are how many homes? 40,000? and if everyone contributed $100 a year, that would be $4,000,000. Certainly enough to handle rebuilding 10 homes at $400,000 apiece which is probably on the high side? I am just playing with figures and really have no idea how many homes are there or what the average cost is but it just seemed ridiculous that insurance companies make us all nuts and maybe we can self insure.

This is one of the most ingenious ideas I've heard in a long time... wow!

[shcisamax]

I am glad you liked it. Would someone who has access to the information and an insurance acumen like to do the research?

[Carla B]

Good job for the POA, I'd think.

[mac6115cd]

Found an informative site at:

Sinkhole Maps of Florida Counties

It's only for 2008, but it gives a nice summary of sinkhole locations. From what I can see, sinkholes are relatively common and insurance is highly recommended.

[shcisamax]

From what I see, there are no sink holes in TV? Did they all happen after 2008 or maybe I am not reading the map correctly..

[cappyjon431]

Originally Posted by mac6115cd

Found an informative site at:

Sinkhole Maps of Florida Counties

It's only for 2008, but it gives a nice summary of sinkhole locations. From what I can see, sinkholes are relatively common and insurance is highly recommended.

The thing to remember is these maps only give details on reported sinkholes. Of course if a sinkhole opens up in a residential area (eg. TV) the sinkholes will be reported. But think of all that pastureland out there with unreported sinkholes. I say this because I am a cave diver and some of the best cave dives I have ever done in Florida were sinkholes (which opened up to the aquifer) in some farmers' fields that no one knew about.

The bottom line is to remember that these type of survey maps probably underreport, so the incidence is probably significantly higher.

[l2ridehd]

I believe everyone has the catastrophic insurance as that is a Florida state requirement. It's the casual damage that is the issue. Many many homes in TV have foundation cracks that may or may not be caused by sink holes. They are all caused by some type of settling. So how do you insure against that without causing your rates to skyrocket? $100 per house assumes 100% sign up which would never happen and even if it did the amount would quickly be used up by repairing settling cracks of all types. We need a solution and it has to be provided by insurance companies. Probably the best answer would be a high deductible casual damage type solution. Stop the frivolous claims but protect you against a large cost type fix. Maybe a 10K or 20K deductible.