Florida Homeowners Insurance
ares
see what was said. But my homeowner's insurance
is proposed to be $6700 roughly this year, which is a huge amount of money
to me. If I can eliminate the 'hurricane' portion of it, I believe it can
be reduced by $3300. And I am hearing that the 'hurricane' portion of it
actually includes any wind driven damage, so it's not just hurricanes as
named on the news. Well, the deductible for such hurricane insurance is
$22000. I live in an area where we haven't had anything close to a
hurricane in the 35 years I've lived here, and never any weather driven
damages. And should there be a storm, it would likely be a mild to
moderate one, and if there is damage, it is most likely to come to less than
the $22000 deductible, I would imagine, unless I got real unlucky.
Well, the other thing is that they have estimated my replacement cost almost
$500,000. This is really close to the market value of my home. And that
doesn't account for the fact that my lot is over 2 acres in a hot area, and
has considerable value, perhaps 1/5 that amount. AND they say the personal
property coverage is for $240,000. I have NOWHERE NEAR that amount of
stuff. So, they say that the personal property is considered as a percent
of the home value. To me this means I am paying to insure things I don't
have. And what about if there is a loss.... if I am paying to insure
$240,000 of property, how would I ever collect $240,000 if I never had that
much? This all makes me take their coverage as stated, less seriously.
I never had the chance to really look this policy over and think about it
before, but these things don't make sense to me, as the buyer of such
policy. Oh, and another thing is that my house is way too large, and should
the whole thing get knocked down in a storm, I would not want to make this
home so large again. Yet they are saying they HAVE TO insure me for
replacement cost, and supposedly no other insurance company would do so for
less either. Can someone make sense of this all for me? I am just
considering dropping the hurricane insurance and putting the savings aside
for myself just in case. And heck, the roof will need replacing eventually
anyway.......
ares
hchi...@hotmail.com
If you own outright, without a mortgage, I guess you could try to get
a fire only policy and a personal liability policy. If you have a
mortgage, the mortgage docs undoubtedly require your maintaining
insurance.
Simply put, I refuse to pay anywhere near that amount in a Ponzi
pawnsie game, where I stand a minimal chance of collecting and an even
smaller chance of being treated fairly if I do collect. The "sense"
that you need is the sense to beat them at their own game. Sell the
property, reduce your exposure by buying a smaller place and invest
the difference. You'll pay less taxes, lower insurance, lower power
bills, and be in a stronger position. If a hurricane comes, you can
wait out the rush of repairs and contractor scams and take a vacation,
or park a travel trailer on your property while repairs are made.
Or you could do like we did, move out of the state and drop property
tax and insurance to 1/4 of the amount we were paying.
ares
years....) .
I've been considering similar but want to stay in the state; didn't realize
you had moved out;
.... what states would you recommend though, just in case? I like to live
way below my means,
but this has seemed to have trapped me into ridiculous expensess for the
time being.
Of course it wasn't like this when I first moved, and yeah, I view it as a
racket as well.....I would like to have fire and liability protection
though, and dealing with
insurance companies, I see that you feel secure but when it comes time to
claim, it could be a nightmare.
I could pay off the mortgage but didn't want to tie up that money just
now... I might consider
it..... one of my stocks unexpectedly took a major dive right when I was
going to sell a chunk of it and had I
lowered my price a couple of points I wouldn't be in that mess but it should
come back... it's just waiting for
it to do so...
ares
<hchi...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:ouglc41het5l9mom1...@4ax.com...
hchi...@hotmail.com
North Carolina, Texas, and to a lesser extent, Alabama and Georgia.
Property taxes and insurance costs are lower once you get away from
the coasts.
Ours was the last house in the neighborhood that sold prior to the big
crunch. There were a number of factors in the decision to move, but a
big one was the rising insurance costs and possibility of the policy
getting canceled and our having to go with Citizens. We could have
held on the taxes because of no senior left behind SOH, but our
position was just getting too risky and the potential for the area to
degrade out from under us too great. We probably should have moved a
year earlier, but events happened at their own pace.
Stocks are too volatile now, and the economic spin untruthful enough
that I'm afraid even the newsletters are being fed doctored
information on the general state of affairs. If there were no
derivatives, I'd feel a lot more comfortable. As it is, the economy
is a house of cards that can only be propped up so much. If the con
is good enough, we'll be fine for a few more years, perhaps 'til that
mythical 2012. If not, there are some frightening scenarios possible.
Just remember that the money you are paying out now for insurance and
taxes isn't worth as much as it used to be. I guess that is a good
thing?
Lou
if it's illegal to price gouge due to hurricanes, how does the
Florida state government get away with it?
Lou
hchi...@hotmail.com
wrote:
When they were able to void the fourth amendment rights by illegally
searching private property for citrus canker (a disease with no effect
at all on public health), and then seizing all citrus trees within
1900 feet of an infected tree, it was pretty obvious that they could
get away with whatever they wanted.
Does Citizen's gouge? Considering the potential for losses, and the
group that is insured, I'm not so sure. Folks with multi-million
dollar mansions directly on the coast didn't get there by being
pushovers, and can be pretty insistent that their Italian marble tile
work and filigreed antique mahogany furniture is replaced with exact
replacements.