FL homeowners insurance jumped up

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If you choose to live in an area that experiences floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, etc then you should expect insurance to reflect the risks. I do not want my rates to pay for your increased risk. If I buy a corvette, my auto insurance will go up.

Rod
 
I would never consider cancelling my homeowner's insurance, that's extremely foolish advice. The cost of insurance compared to the risk of total loss from a fire or other destructive event just isn't worth it. Jack your deductible up if you're looking to save a few bucks.
 
Originally Posted by dishdude
I would never consider cancelling my homeowner's insurance, that's extremely foolish advice. The cost of insurance compared to the risk of total loss from a fire or other destructive event just isn't worth it. Jack your deductible up if you're looking to save a few bucks.


Wrong !!!!!! ☺
 
Originally Posted by Mr Nice
Originally Posted by dishdude
I would never consider cancelling my homeowner's insurance, that's extremely foolish advice. The cost of insurance compared to the risk of total loss from a fire or other destructive event just isn't worth it. Jack your deductible up if you're looking to save a few bucks.


Wrong !!!!!! ☺



How are you mitigating liability risk if something happens on property? I concur you can self insure with structure however liability goes out to your salary, assets, investments and property value etc.
 
Originally Posted by DBMaster
Watch your policy documents to see how much they are ratcheting up the replacement cost of your house and the value of its contents. I realize that construction costs do rise and most people tend to continue cramming more things into their houses as time goes by, but sometimes I think they ratchet those values up too much. You can have them lowered upon request.

If your policy has a co-insurance clause, being underinsured puts you at risk of a co-insurance penalty.
We are seeing $300+/sq-ft out here in CA on residential properties. There has been a significant rise in construction costs due to labor shortages.

Originally Posted by gregk24
My homeowners insurance jumped up around 35% due to the Hurricane we had last year. Shopped around and found a lower rate, but only from a sub par company known to not pay out claims as they should. Very frustrating!

You can attribute this to severe weather events which has led to increased loss severity. GL and Umbrella have recently experienced major deterioration from the worsening legal climate.

Originally Posted by Donald
Most major insurance companies use reinsurance to cover huge losses. My daughter manages a few billion dollars in a reinsurance portfolio for a major US carrier.

The reinsurance situation varies by carrier and by product. On lower values, it is not uncommon for larger carriers to retain 100% of the risk. In general, most portfolios have treaty reinsurance agreements in place for losses past a certain threshold.

Originally Posted by alarmguy


Im sorry, I dont buy into the "sup par" company and I dont know why people form/listen to opinions on Insurance companies, they are all the same and have to obey the same laws in the most regulated industry of this country.
If your home is covered for a hurricane and if it is damaged by a hurricane, your insurance company will pay, no matter how cheap you think they are..
Buy on price, ignore BS marketing and hearsy.

I switch insurance companies about 5 times in the last 13 years (maybe 6 times) low price always wins, I could care less who it is and my bank could care less who it is also. More so for a policy the vast majority of Americans will never use.

This really depends on the type of claim. And yes, you are correct that most Americans will never use their policy. Statistically, I think more than ¾ of these policies will never see a claim.

For a minor claim, most carriers will handle the claim very similarly. But for more complex liability claims, a larger carrier's claim handling expertise will be evident when they have adjusters who are more experienced. Many carriers adjust their claims in-house, some smaller ones have their claims handled by a 3rd party.

There are also significant differences between the policy language on admitted policies vs non-admitted (surplus lines) policies.
 
Originally Posted by DBMaster
Watch your policy documents to see how much they are ratcheting up the replacement cost of your house and the value of its contents. I realize that construction costs do rise and most people tend to continue cramming more things into their houses as time goes by, but sometimes I think they ratchet those values up too much. You can have them lowered upon request.


I had this happen, and I did this, and then I had to keep doing it every year.

It was a half-hour, tape-recorded interview about what percentage of my floor was tile, what percentage of my roof was shingled, etc.

And I just knew they'd compare notes year-to-year if there was a claim.

I dumped them. Sadly the new insurance came with the invasive interview and a guy taking pictures of everything as well.
 
Bet you are exactly right.

In the past 40 plus years the number of people moving to within 20 miles of the coast has grown quite a bit.

Florida was lucky for decades after the hurricanes of the 1920s and the Labor Day hurricane of 1935...

Hurricane Betsy in 1965 did a decent bit of damage. Though no where near the scale of devastation the Hurricane Andrew brought in August 1992. In the mid 90s many hurricane forecasters knew that the Cape Verde seasons we're going to become more active in the coming years... Thus why there was little surprise when 4 major hurricanes made landfall in Florida in 2004 alone. Including Charley in 2004. And Wilma in 2005...

Only one other area of coastline is such a hurricane magnet... Wilmington NC to Cape Hatteras...

This active cycle of the Cape Verde hurricanes will continue for awhile longer.
 
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Originally Posted by Mr Nice

Once house is paid off you cancel your homeowner's policy.

Invest that $$$ in and 7 years later you will grow the money and buy a new roof.

What the probability of a catastrophic loss due to a fire or mother nature.... ?

Very slim unless you live very near the water.



I have 2 homes, in Silicon Valley with no where near the woods or rural. Both homes have insurance companies cancelled their policies due to 1) Metlife exit the market for risk reason, and 2) Nationwide no longer cover the same policy and roll me into a new one (that jumped from $800 to $900 a year).

I would imagine the amount of statistic insurance companies do are way more than me or you. So now I've moved from Metlife to Progressive on my condo. Maybe they are lucky, maybe they intentionally turn a blind eye to the math, just like a typical small guy with not much to lose.
 
I have a SF renter's policy. I checked with USAA and it was very evident that USAA didn't want to sell renter's insurance in this area. Premium was a lot higher than SF. Their car insurance was cheaper than SF.
 
Originally Posted by The Critic
Originally Posted by DBMaster
..

alarmguy said:
Im sorry, I dont buy into the "sup par" company and I dont know why people form/listen to opinions on Insurance companies, they are all the same and have to obey the same laws in the most regulated industry of this country.
If your home is covered for a hurricane and if it is damaged by a hurricane, your insurance company will pay, no matter how cheap you think they are..
Buy on price, ignore BS marketing and hearsy.

I switch insurance companies about 5 times in the last 13 years (maybe 6 times) low price always wins, I could care less who it is and my bank could care less who it is also. More so for a policy the vast majority of Americans will never use.

This really depends on the type of claim. And yes, you are correct that most Americans will never use their policy. Statistically, I think more than ¾ of these policies will never see a claim.

For a minor claim, most carriers will handle the claim very similarly. But for more complex liability claims, a larger carrier's claim handling expertise will be evident when they have adjusters who are more experienced. Many carriers adjust their claims in-house, some smaller ones have their claims handled by a 3rd party.

There are also significant differences between the policy language on admitted policies vs non-admitted (surplus lines) policies.


I dont completely disagree, Im just restating, low price always wins for me, as I typed above. EVERYONE should be getting new quotes on their homeowmers insurance at least every 3 years or every time an increase comes along.

Right now, this is the first time in a few years that I am actually going to stay with the same insurance company after the first year. I had no increase so I am staying for another year, all other quotes have gone off the rails, meaning $400 to $700 more for a year.
Even though I could care less who the ins company is, it is a national company, most only big companies can you get online instant quotes anyway.

Claims = in owning homes (and business building) for many decades now, I have NEVER put in a claim.
I use insurance for things I can not afford, I do not use insurance as a "credit card" to pay for minor things.

If someone gets injuried on my property, I am well covered, if my home is destroyed in a storm I am well covered.
Some people who make small claims end up paying for the cost of the repair in higher ins rates for many years even if they switch companies, its in their record.
Again, lowest price always wins for me, together with highest liability ins and midrange to higher deductibles.
 
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Some additional perspective on the current FL insurance market:
https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/southeast/2019/07/30/534215.htm

Originally Posted by alarmguy

I dont completely disagree, Im just restating, low price always wins for me, as I typed above. EVERYONE should be getting new quotes on their homeowmers insurance at least every 3 years or every time an increase comes along.

This is an understandable position - it is common behavior by both brokers and consumers.

Also, you are in the majority for not having filed a claim. I think statistically, the vast majority of personal lines and small commercial policies have never filed a claim of any size.
 
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Originally Posted by The Critic
Some additional perspective on the current FL insurance market:
https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/southeast/2019/07/30/534215.htm

Originally Posted by alarmguy

I dont completely disagree, Im just restating, low price always wins for me, as I typed above. EVERYONE should be getting new quotes on their homeowmers insurance at least every 3 years or every time an increase comes along.

This is an understandable position - it is common behavior by both brokers and consumers.

Also, you are in the majority for not having filed a claim. I think statistically, the vast majority of personal lines and small commercial policies have never filed a claim of any size.


Agree again, in the majority for not filing claims but definitely Im in the minority for shopping insurance quotes every year on every insurance policy I carry.
Blows my mind reading posts of loyal people, for what?

Just like milk in a supermarket, I could care less which large insurance company I have, low price always wins, every year, just like buying milk in a supermarket Ill always take he lowest price and switch. Heck, it deosnt even have to be a full year, Ill cancel and switch a policy in the middle of the term of the policy, again, could care less ... (and yes, know I am repeating myself) But reading forums and people who are loyal to insurance or any company always surprises me, why?

The loyalty of the company to you doesnt exist, as much as they want to make you believe it, its not true, by law they can only be loyal to the stockholders and investors of the company, if they are not, they can be sued for not extracting as much profit as they can out of the customer.

Its all smoke, mirrors and BS, jsut like buying oil and gas or any other product. Why would someone pay $1700.00 to a large number of companies to insure a home, when you can find one company to insure it for 975.00 ?? Doesnt make sense, either company has to pay if your home is destroyed or you are sued. Like hello?/ *LOL*

Your car is going to run no matter what large company gas you put in it, your engine isnt going to blow up no matter what proper API oil you use, at ANY cost.
 
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Originally Posted by supton
Do you have to have the mortgage paid off to drop insurance, or is it something you can drop after securing financing? [Not that I plan to, just curious.] I could see that if the structure was aged out and not worth fixing, kinda like on an old beater of a car. But probably when one could just give it away and still be ok financially. No mortgage company i going to have a home with adequate homeowners insurance. That's a BIG NO.
 
Originally Posted by Rand
so what reason did my premiums go up 40% in 5 years no hurricanes or claims here... maybe some sporadic hail damage... but nothing massive or widespread.

Well they did try to say my house needs 20% more in coverage.. its value went up aprox.. $0

With homeowners insurance you have to watch it closely because it will steadily go up. You may have to switch insurance companies every few years.
 
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