[rsmurano]

Let me put it this way:
Are you still buying car insurance even though you have never used it before?
Are you buying medical insurance even though you aren’t sick?
Are you buying home insurance even though you have never needed it?
If you answered yes, then you have your answer. You never need your insurance until the day you do.
do you want to be protected or want to save a little bit each year?

[asianthree]

Our friends were visiting one claim adjuster, and spouse runs their insurance office.

Both made a statement that may hold true to some homes.

Catastrophic sinkhole could be enough insurance for homes. There is so little property on each lot that doesn’t have a structure built, sinkhole could impact some areas of the home, that catastrophic could come into play.

[Nevinator]

You didn’t mention whether you’re moving to a new home or into a home that is a few years old. I moved into a new home and because of all the ground disturbance during construction and not knowing what the area looked like in terms of dry streams, drainage, etc. before construction, my insurance professional suggested that we purchase the sinkhole insurance and keep it for at least 2-3 years. At that time we can reevaluate based on whether there are other issues in our local area.

[retiredguy123]

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[retiredguy123]

Originally Posted by msilagy

IS THIS TRUE -"Note that sinkhole insurance will only cover damage to your house. It will not cover damage to your yard, driveway, sidewalk, pool, or anything else outside the perimeter of your house. So, if there is a 10 foot hole in your driveway, but your house foundation is not damaged, you are not covered by either sinkhole or catastrophic ground collapse insurance." I was under the impression from an ins agent that catastrophic ground collapse covered your home if damaged and sinkhole covered your property such as a hole in the yard........PLEASE COMMENT

It is true. Ask your insurance agent for a copy of the company's sinkhole endorsement document. You can read for yourself what it covers. When I was shopping for sinkhole insurance, I found that many insurance agents did not have a clue about what their sinkhole endorsement covered.

I have insurance with Progressive and I am attaching a copy of my sinkhole endorsement document. It states that only the "principal building" is covered, not the "other structures". I think this is typical in Florida. My annual cost for the endorsement is $145.

[jrref]

Originally Posted by Nevinator

You didn’t mention whether you’re moving to a new home or into a home that is a few years old. I moved into a new home and because of all the ground disturbance during construction and not knowing what the area looked like in terms of dry streams, drainage, etc. before construction, my insurance professional suggested that we purchase the sinkhole insurance and keep it for at least 2-3 years. At that time we can reevaluate based on whether there are other issues in our local area.

Of course they are going to say that. They want to sell you insurance.

At the end of the day, Insurance is something we all need but some insurance like sink hole and flood in our area in the Villages is a total waste of money. There are some corner cases where if you live near a pond or up in Marion County where there has been a recent history of issues, you may want to consider it. Also, remember, when insurance is cheap, that means the insurance company feels its a low risk.

[retiredguy123]

Originally Posted by roadrnnr

what is the typical cost for this?

My cost is $145 per year, with a deductible of 10 percent of the house value.

[Spartan86]

Originally Posted by retiredguy123

My cost is $145 per year, with a deductible of 10 percent of the house value.

That’s not too bad. I dropped ours as the endorsement was, as I recall just over $500 and then 10% of A - meaning for $500+ I was only protecting myself for the portion of the cost exceeding $48000.

I think State Farm quoted differently. Their endorsement was less, but their all perils deductible (including optional sinkhole) was 2% - $9500ish. That was a couple of years ago. They now will not write a new policy on a pre-‘21 home.

[CybrSage]

Originally Posted by rsmurano

Let me put it this way:
Are you still buying car insurance even though you have never used it before?

Are you buying home insurance even though you have never needed it?
If you answered yes, then

Car insurance is required by law, home insurance is required by the mortgage company.

That is the answer. How does that relate to the not required sinkhole coverage?

[jabacon6669]

Like any insurance, you only need it, when you need it. The difference between catastrophic land collapse (CLC) and Sink hole (SH) coverage as follows, what happens to the land is the same, it collapses into the ground. When this happens the State inspectors come in. The difference is the cause. Test are then conducted and if the collapse is determined to be caused by a limestone formation below the earth's surface it is a sinkhole. If you don't have that coverage you get nothing, zero. Even though all companies offer (CLC) insurance. Sink holes are rare, CLC more frequent. So, like I said earlier you only need it when you need it.
Now I had one home owners policy and they like other posters said, had a 10% deductible, or about $35,000. Crazy, but that's what most have. Except I found that State Farm includes there (SH) deductible into a single deductible for all. I selected a $1000 deductible, which applies to all of my deductible items, including (SH). You can pick your deductible. I pay $2264 for home owners in TV.

[SusanStCatherine]

We had new construction over two years ago. There were depressions in the Village that were remediated to the tune of $180K each before the homes were sold. So we got the extra sink hole coverage through State Farm which requires an inspection. State Farm has the lowest cost and deductible for this type of coverage. We'll keep it for at least several years.

[Rainger99]

Originally Posted by Harvin

I was talking to a customer at McDonalds at Magnolia plaza, he was in the business of sink hole remediation (basically they pump a cement slurry into the sink hole) - he said there are a lot of sink holes in TV area. State Farm provide sink hole insurance, it was reasonably priced in my opinion.

Do you have the name of the company?

Does anyone have any idea what Sinkhole remediation would cost (not Catastrophic Ground Collapse). I have a deductible of $32,000 which seems like it would pay for fixing most sinkholes. My foundation is a slab of concrete.

In addition, most insurance companies require an inspection before they issue sinkhole coverage. If you pass inspection, you can get coverage and if you don't pass, you can't get coverage.

It would seem to me that if you can get coverage, there must be very little risk that you will have sinkhole damage. And if you can't get coverage, there is probably a much higher chance of having sinkhole damage.

[jrref]

Originally Posted by retiredguy123

My cost is $145 per year, with a deductible of 10 percent of the house value.

Think about it. $145 per year is so low that the insurance company feels it's not very likely to happen.

If sink hole occurance were of a higher probability, you would be paying a lot more.

Kind of like flood insurance. Here in the Villages you can get flood insurance for about $250 for example while the people living on the coast pay thousands.

The main point is people think sink hole insurance covers a sink hole happening in your driveway or front lawn for example when it actually only covers the principal residence structure.

[Carla B]

In about 2009 or 2010 I met a lady from Glenbrook who was having sinkhole repairs done on her home, using her sinkhole endorsement. She said, had she not had sinkhole coverage, the repairs would amount to $100,000+ out of pocket. We carried it for 15 years with ASi/Progressive until 2023, when they doubled the cost of our HO insurance and then some ($1676 to $3539). No claims except for a palm tree struck by lightning in 2017. So we had to find another insurer.

Then, they wondered why we dropped them?

[Rainger99]

Originally Posted by jrref

Think about it. $145 per year is so low that the insurance company feels it's not very likely to happen.

My sinkhole premium is about $400 and I pay the first $32,000 of any repairs.

It is tough getting accurate information from insurance companies on sinkhole coverage. I will call some companies that repair sinkholes and see if I can get a ballpark idea on how much it would cost to fix a sinkhole.