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Home Insurance E-Book 8 THINGS TO KNOW BEFORE BUYING HOMEOWNERS INSURANCE IN FLORIDA Presented by Adeline Palmerston Harbour Insurance Agency Naples, Florida https://harbourinsuranceagency.com/ TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction 2. Hurricane Insurance 3. Mold is a Four Letter Word 4. Hurricane Deductible 5. Wind Mitigation Reports 6. Flood Insurance 7. That Sinking Feeling: Sink Holes 8. Wind-Driven Rain 9. Harbour Insurance: We Give Advice 10. About Us INTRODUCTION We live in paradise. We get to golf, fish, run, BBQ, bike, go on a walk with our family, or just sit in the hammock 365 days a year. Florida is a special place to live. But, paradise found can be paradise lost if you don't insure your home correctly. In this E-Book we will tell you how to best insure your home to protect you from the perils of paradise. 1. HARBOUR INSURANCE / EXPERTS IN FLORIDA INSURANCE 1. HURRICANE INSURANCE A year doesn't go by in Florida where we don't have a brush with a hurricane. In most other States, hurricane coverage is part of your homeowners insurance policy. In Florida, it often is part of your policy, but sometimes it is not. It all depends on your policy. Some insurance companies will insure the home EXCLUDING hurricane insurance. If they do then you have to go to another company to buy hurricane coverage. You can buy it from the State run insurance company - Citizens Insurance Corp (disclaimer I am on the Board of Governors of Citizens) or a private market such as Lloyds of London. It is less than ideal to have two separate policies. Quite often each policy will point to the other and say "that's your problem, not ours" in the event of a claim. It is better to have one company insuring your home with hurricane insurance. Check your policy to see that you do, in fact, have hurricane insurance and if you have two different policies. If you do have two policies, then try to get insurance from just one carrier. Click here if you want Harbor Insurance to conduct a review of your hurricane insurance. 2. HARBOUR INSURANCE / EXPERTS IN FLORIDA INSURANCE 2. MOLD IS A FOUR LETTER WORD Florida can be a petri dish at times. We live in a very humid environment. Mold grows quickly because it has water, a food source and humidity to accelerate its growth. Mold can cause very serious health conditions. Preventing mold growth is relatively easy if you know what to look for and you stay on top of it as a home owner. In the event that you do not then you should make sure your homeowners policy has some basic coverage to protect you. In the past 20 years insurance companies have limited mold coverage considerably and some companies don't even cover it all. Make sure you have basic coverage on your policy. At the minimum you should have $20,000. That will cover about one room of your house if you have mold. If you can buy more coverage you should do so. Quite often you can buy $50,000 and even $100,000 in coverage. Check your policy to make sure you have coverage and if you can buy more, then you should. 3. HARBOUR INSURANCE / EXPERTS IN FLORIDA INSURANCE 3. HURRICANE DEDUCTIBLE If you have purchased homeowners insurance in other states and have had a claim then you know about deductibles. In other States you have one deductible for claims (it is usually $500 or $1,000). In Florida it's different, and it's VERY important you understand how. If a covered loss is "triggered" by a hurricane, then you will most likely have a hurricane deductible. It is usually listed as a percentage of your coverage A, complicated right? So if your home is insured for 500k (Coverage A) and you have a 2% hurricane deductible then you are responsible for the first $10,000 of the claim ($500k vs 2%) if it is caused by a hurricane. If a covered loss is covered by anything but a hurricane your deductible is your "all other peril" deductible, which is usually ($500 or $1,000). That's a big difference and can cause a "hurricane hang over". Your hurricane deductible can be higher too, such as 5% and 10%. Check your policy to see what % and $ amount your deductibles are. There are ways you can minimize your deductible (click here for my article "Help, I hate my hurricane deductible"). 4. HARBOUR INSURANCE / EXPERTS IN FLORIDA INSURANCE 4. WIND MITIGATION REPORTS There is a State statute that requires insurance companies to give you premium credit if your home has features that make your home stronger against hurricanes. In 2004, Florida unified their State building code to require new homes to have hurricane resistant features ( Florida is the only State to have a unified building code! ). If you have a home that is built prior to 2004 then you need to prove to the insurance companies that your home has certain features by submitting a Wind Mitigation Report (WMR). To do so you have to hire a certified inspector for about $100 to conduct the inspection and submit it to your insurance company. If your home is built post-2004 then you should not need a WMR, unless you put on a new roof post- 2004. If your home is built prior to 2004 you should make sure you have an accurate WMR and that you are receiving the correct credits. If your home is built post 2004 you should review your policy and make sure you are automatically receiving the credits. If you want a free review of this from Harbour Insurance click here. 5. HARBOUR INSURANCE / EXPERTS IN FLORIDA INSURANCE 5. FLOOD INSURANCE We always say that the entire State of Florida is a flood zone. The highest elevation in Florida is 345 feet. We get a lot of rain and quickly during the rainy season and three of our four perimeters in Florida are fluctuating water basins ( Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean ). Quite often the water has no place to go but to rise up. Fortunately, Florida does a great job of requiring homes to be built above the flood elevation. But water doesn't always listen. 95% of home insurance policies in Florida EXCLUDE flood as a covered loss. So most likely you don't have coverage for floods. Even if a flood is caused by a hurricane and you don't have flood coverage then your loss won't be covered. Fortunately, you have some reasonable options to add flood coverage for your home. You can purchase up to $250k from the National Flood Insurance Program. Some insurance companies have added the option of adding flood coverage to their homeowners policy. You can also buy flood insurance from various private markets. Sometimes, you will need an "Elevation Certificate" to get an accurate price. If you don't have flood coverage then you should purchase it. If you don't know if you do then you should check to see if you do. Either way Harbour Insurance can help. Click here for a free review. 6. HARBOUR INSURANCE / EXPERTS IN FLORIDA INSURANCE 6. THAT SINKING FEELING: SINK HOLES Over 6,500 sinkhole insurance claims are reported every year in Florida. Florida is built on sand and limestone with elaborate aquafers just below the ground level. With the addition of heavy rains, the earth shifts more in this state than other States. Fortunately, deaths are rare and sinkhole areas are widely known and avoided. By law, insurance companies in Florida must provide coverage for "catastrophic ground coverage collapse". There are four conditions that need to be met for a claim to be paid. In addition, insurance companies are required to offer sinkhole damage as an additional option (an additional fee) as a rider. Is the additional sink hole rider right for you? It is best to have your agent review that with their insurance company underwriters and adjusters to determine the likelihood of a sinkhole. In addition, the homeowner can hire an engineer to come to the property to test and issue a report on the likelihood of a sink hole. 7. HARBOUR INSURANCE / EXPERTS IN FLORIDA INSURANCE 7. WIND-DRIVEN RAIN Wind-driven rain was a large issue with homeowners insurance claims post- Hurricane Irma. So what is it? Wind-driven rain is rain that is driven into your home by wind. The rain comes through an opening because it is being propelled by the wind. The catch here is that there is no damage to the roof or exterior roof to justify how the water got in. It may have came in through a window seal, or some other means similar to this. Since there is no physical damage, the insurance company may view this as a result of normal wear and tear on the home and will exclude it from the policy. The good news? Some companies cover this under a package policy they offer, or they allow you to endorse the coverage on the policy. The bad news? Not all carriers offer this endorsement coverage. It is important that for you to know if your policy covers this to be better protected in the event of a storm or heavy rains. Florida gets quite a bit of windy storms despite being known as the sunshine state! 8. HARBOUR INSURANCE AGENCY / EXPERTS IN FLORIDA IN SURANCE 8. HARBOUR INSURANCE AGENCY: WE GIVE ADVICE As you can see from this E-Book, Harbour Insurance cares.
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