FLA Peeps: House Ins Question...Long >>>

[motordavid]

We have a 2nd home in FL, the Seasonal Starter Shack: 2 years old,
made it through Wilma with only a couple tears in the lanai cage, basically
a concrete bunker, tile roof, ~1900 ft sq plus garage and lanai.
It is mortgage free, and we spend about 5 months there.

With the home insurance fiasco going on in FL and any "storm areas"
of the US, we got our new home ins. policy today. Our previous insurer
cancelled us, and this new one is from Universal. Our NC house/car/M'cycles/
Umbrella insurer does not write in FL, so we are at the mercy of an agent in FL
that pulls up these "insurers". The cost for the next year is $2,200 which is not
the problem. The prob. is that both CEO & I have read through the "policy" twice
today, taking notes and we find the 35+ pages, double sided, nearly fookin
indecipherable.

I can "read & comprehend" about as well as anyone on the planet but
this boiler plate, "see section B, except for sec. 1 on page 22", etc., etc.
is an absolute quagmire and a disgrace, but that's not my beef: .

With all the "not covered if" and exclusions and subnotes and disclaimer
paragraphs and utter obtuse bullshit, and in the end: coverage for
theft, fire and a couple of std. things, does it make any sense to simply
skip the fookin house insurance???

In 40 years of owning houses, I've never filed a freakin claim for anything.
The piddly stuff, we just ate and fixed...am I way off track here?

Other than "liability", which I'm trying to determine if I can get seperate,
I am not convinced I need/want insurance on the joint. It will not burn
unless someone napalmed it, there isn't that much to steal, the "water
entry" exclusions are rigorous, the 'Cane deductibles are ridiculous, etc.

It is a 2nd joint and I don't wish it any harm, but I'm thinking I can skip
this home owners' "insurance" crap and just let it go...the personal liability
situ does nag, as I don't need some geezer tripping and doing a personal
injury rag on me.

Any opins are welcome...besides the cost, something has to change in
the insurance biz, when a well educated, mature citizen cannot understand
the 35+ dbl sided pages of a fookin ins. policy. It reads like it was written in
the Ministry of Truth, Orwellian-style. Oh, and this new policy was mailed to
our FL addy, forwarded by the idiots in the Naples PO, and got to us today;
it's freakin "due" on July 2nd.

I'm thinking I skip the "policy"; any FL Peeps' Opins?
Thanks,
Ol'UncMtr

[Thunder22]

as far as I know, if you have liability insurance on 1 house you don't need it on the 2nd. Liability insurance is liability insurnace. In NY/NJ/CT, if you get sued at work for hostile work environment or some such, your homeowners personal liability insurance will cover you if you have to pay. I would check with your primary insurer to make sure however.

[fln8tive]

Ooooh, good question. Must be Hurricaine Season.

You are not in a storm surge zone I gather. Why not "rent" the house and get a policy that just covers the structure for fire or storm...you don't claim homestead so you are already getting hammered on the taxes based on your license plates.

Maybe your HOA won't allow rentals....

The other option is to get a 10K deductable and keep coverage for the foundation scraper that we may yet get. Or get a policy that covers just the structure, not Uncle Abner's coin collection, etc. You don't really need full coverage on contents, because when the big one hits you'll be in NC, you'll scrape the pad, take the check and sell the land.

EDIT: You have shutters and winders that are storm rated...your biggest threat is water intrusion from the wind-driven rain that will actually be forced through the stucco...the roof sounds solid. Also, insurance won't pay a dime for landscaping and tree removal, so you are fooked there regardless.

[ylwjacket]

That's a tough one.

Allegedly, the insurance rates are soon to go down, as our wonderful legislature passed some stupid non-reform bill back in Feb.

You are in Collier county - a county with a high premium, and your policy likely has a 2% hurricane deductible. You can up your deductible to 5% or 10%, which could save you some money. Also, you should get a discount for your shutters and such. BTW - screened pool enclosures, fences, and the like are not covered at all.

I hate to say it, but I think 2k per year isn't bad. I pay 6k per year (and taxes of 10k). When I bought the house 3 years ago, it was 2k (and 4k for taxes). My boat insurance costs 10k per year, with a 10% named storm deductible.

Collier county has storm experience - Charley came in just north of you, to devastating effect. People are living in FEMA trailers 3 years later.

I think I'd probably do it, and hope something happens in Tallahassee to get some relief. If another Charley comes through, you could be looking at a hell of a clean up bill. Even without much in the way of structural damage, a week without power will turn your house into a 50k mold and mildew salvage job.

If we go another year or two with fewer storms, more insurers will come back, and rates will drop some.

So, with all insurance, it gets down to this - are you willing to risk it?

[statdoc]

Gov's new insurance comparison site

http://www.flgov.com/shop4insurance

[motordavid]

Thanks, FLaRaDuh Peeps, & (NY Gresch!)...
good opins. TheCEO is checking with our
NC Primary insurer today on some of those points
and, I'm thinking about raising the 'Cane deductible
to save a few. Also, in the policy is a provision for
"potential" reduction, by having a lic. engineer come
out and do the inspection for assessing better building
stds., the shutters and roll downs, etc. But, that's
something hard to do from afar, so that part will have
to wait until we get there. The mildew is a very good
point, but the lang. of our policy has made my hair
hurt in reading the jive and disclaimers.

We will probably do a half or qtrly premium pay and
see what develops...

I'm surprised the "consumer action groups" haven't
pushed their respective 'genius legislators' for
some simple reform on the ins policy verbage: I
can hardly interpret what the fook they really mean.
I realize that's on purpose, but some FL cracker with
a GED has no freakin chance of understanding what
his policy really means. It's a fookin crime and typical
gov't/"regulatory"/lobbyism at work here in the ol'
US of Amerika.

NEway, thank ya'll again for the ideas and viewpoints.
BR,mD ... shoulda been born rich instead of good looking. ;>)

[X5Flyboy]

You still have not mentioned "flood insurance", to cover what your homeowners won't.