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ugh - homeowners insurance won't renew


ktgrok
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Got the letter today. They will not renew our policy in October, due to "limiting hurricane risks". AKA they are limiting or pulling out of insuring homes in Florida. Mind you, in in the center of the state, NOT on the coast. 

And this article from earlier this month says that a bunch of companies are on the verge of collapse financially, others have pulled out, and those staying are going to be raising rates 40%!!!!!!!

I'm about ready to tell my parents to just stay in Durham and I'll move up there. Of course, that would be trading one gerrymandered crazy place for another, but at least I could stop worrying about hurricanes. (only thing keeping me in Florida at this point is my family and the state funded educational fund/scholarship for kids with different abilites, that pays for most of our homeschooling)

Edited by ktgrok
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41 minutes ago, ktgrok said:

Got the letter today. They will not renew our policy in October, due to "limiting hurricane risks". AKA they are limiting or pulling out of insuring homes in Florida. Mind you, in in the center of the state, NOT on the coast. 

And this article from earlier this month says that a bunch of companies are on the verge of collapse financially, others have pulled out, and those staying are going to be raising rates 40%!!!!!!!

I'm about ready to tell my parents to just stay in Durham and I'll move up there. Of course, that would be trading one gerrymandered crazy place for another, but at least I could stop worrying about hurricanes. (only thing keeping me in Florida at this point is my family and the state funded educational fund/scholarship for kids with different abilites, that pays for most of our homeschooling)

Depending on how much insurance ends up costing you, it may be cheaper to just pay for the homeschooling yourself !!! Insurance rates in Florida sound crazy

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17 minutes ago, Brittany1116 said:

Our rate in FL doubled last year. We have a 15 year old roof and were basically told we have a couple years to replace or we will be dropped. 

Yup, our roof is what I'm worried about. It was inspected and said to be good enough when we bought 2 years ago...but it is 2 yrs older now. Sigh. 

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23 minutes ago, Tap said:

Depending on how much insurance ends up costing you, it may be cheaper to just pay for the homeschooling yourself !!! Insurance rates in Florida sound crazy

There is also no income tax here, so there is that issue, but yeah. 

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1 hour ago, ktgrok said:

Got the letter today. They will not renew our policy in October, due to "limiting hurricane risks". AKA they are limiting or pulling out of insuring homes in Florida. Mind you, in in the center of the state, NOT on the coast. 

And this article from earlier this month says that a bunch of companies are on the verge of collapse financially, others have pulled out, and those staying are going to be raising rates 40%!!!!!!!

I'm about ready to tell my parents to just stay in Durham and I'll move up there. Of course, that would be trading one gerrymandered crazy place for another, but at least I could stop worrying about hurricanes. (only thing keeping me in Florida at this point is my family and the state funded educational fund/scholarship for kids with different abilites, that pays for most of our homeschooling)

I am so sorry. This is only going to get worse as climate change worsens and weather events get more extreme and more often. I worry about how all this plays out.

I am pro, tell mom and dad to stay put, and move. I shudder to think what premiums will be with less competition!

Hugs ❤

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We got the dreaded letter because our roof was original to the house (2001) and so we knew it was coming. Thankfully they came back to us with a renewal after we replaced it but I was half expecting them to come back and say they weren't renewing.

Insurance in FL is so complicated. I definitely feel you about moving out of state. We are moving in 4 years and currently trying to decide if we move to another area of FL or up North. I'd miss the bright sun (but not the heat), and keeping our income non-taxable. It's a hard decision so I get that side of things.

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On 6/24/2023 at 6:37 AM, ktgrok said:

Got the letter today. They will not renew our policy in October, due to "limiting hurricane risks". AKA they are limiting or pulling out of insuring homes in Florida. Mind you, in in the center of the state, NOT on the coast. 

And this article from earlier this month says that a bunch of companies are on the verge of collapse financially, others have pulled out, and those staying are going to be raising rates 40%!!!!!!!

I'm about ready to tell my parents to just stay in Durham and I'll move up there. Of course, that would be trading one gerrymandered crazy place for another, but at least I could stop worrying about hurricanes. (only thing keeping me in Florida at this point is my family and the state funded educational fund/scholarship for kids with different abilites, that pays for most of our homeschooling)

We had to change providers recently because our insurance company “no longer covers rural properties”. Nothing to do with the El Niño forecast and bushfire risk no doubt. Thankfully we have another provider but hoping it’s not the beginning of the end of insurance for rural. I’ve also heard of people getting quotes that make living here pretty much unviable. 

Edited by Ausmumof3
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One thing you may want to factor in while weighing the "move or stay" decision....the impact of the insurance crisis on the real estate market. Florida realtors are already reporting disruptions due to buyers having difficulty obtaining homeowner's insurance/flood/wind coverage (other sources available with a search), which, as I'm sure you know, are required by mortgage lenders.

I don't want to encourage catastrophizing, and your body politic seems to think that recent reforms will be enough and it will just take some time (maybe true, maybe not...I don't know enough to judge), but the insurance crisis is currently snowballing there, and the state may well hit a 3-5 year period where sellers will have a much more difficult time completing a transaction, unless they have all-cash buyers. Point being: it may be a good (or at least better) time to sell now, or soon.

And keep your fingers crossed for a quiet hurricane season this year.

Edited by Happy2BaMom
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Ours hasn’t been cancelled (yet), but DH is already trying to convince me we need to buy land in Alabama and get out of dodge. We only moved here 4 years ago and already it’s getting to the point where we can no longer put away any savings. We make good money. It’s ridiculous.

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When we lived much closer to the coast in TX, the insurance on our brand new built house was canceled just a few days before closing (large window above the front door was their reason?), but we were able to find other insurance in time. But that was a Tier 1 county - closer to the coast/more likely to have hurricane damage and so very expensive. 

We were offered mold coverage with the understanding that you can accept it the first time it is offered, but if you decline it, you will never be able to get mold coverage on that house again later.  We declined it. I would have been interested to know what %age in our area accepted and paid for that not inexpensive mold coverage. 

Next time we moved, we moved outside of Tier 1 counties, and saved a significant percentage on house insurance. 

We are further away now, and 12 years ago, our insurance was fairly inexpensive, but it has been going up and up and up.  When I call and ask why, I'm told of all the payouts they have had to make for various damages in other locations, so they raise the rates to stay in business/etc. 

I am sorry they cancelled your policy. I hope you can find another one fairly quickly.

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On 6/23/2023 at 6:14 PM, ktgrok said:

Yup, our roof is what I'm worried about. It was inspected and said to be good enough when we bought 2 years ago...but it is 2 yrs older now. Sigh. 

This is a real problem.  We do not live in an area that has the threat of insurance companies pulling out all-together but we had a situation in which our insurance company got out of the auto-insurance business so we wanted to switch companies to one that we could get our multi-policy advantages.  So, we called our agent and got the ball rolling.  After a few days the agent called us back and basically whispered into the phone that our roof would not pass muster with ANY insurance company and we needed to keep the insurance we had until we could replace the roof (three-layer total rip off).  The roof was indeed old but was not leaking or missing any shingles.  We could NOT find a contractor!  It took three years to get it replaced (while paying inflated insurance rates because we had to use two different companies for auto and home).  Almost all calls went un-returned.  The handful of contractors that did come out for a quote largely never actually provided one.  They basically ghosted after the visit.  And the ones that did were outrageously expensive.  The only reason we have a new roof is that we had a friend of a friend cash in several favors to get a contractor that they were personal friends with to do the job.  And at half the cost of the lowest quote we had gotten previously.  Our agent says this is a huge and growing problem in our area.  People with much newer and better roofs than ours was have been turned away.  He said anything over 15 years is an issue, even if the roof has a 50-year warranty.

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44 minutes ago, Melissa in Australia said:

Do insurance companies there offer part insurance? Here people living in areas that flood most probably cannot get flood insurance but can get house insurance for most everything  else

No, mortgage companies won't allow you to have less than what they say is required. So at least normal insurance, and in some areas they require flood insurance as well. Hurricanes are included in the regular insurance, but with a higher, separate deductible. Usually 2% of the cost of the home is the deductible for hurricane damage. 

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We moved to FL in 2004 and could only be insured through Citizen's at the time. We were not in a flood zone.  When we sold that house in 2020 to downsize, the new owners could only get Citizen's.

We are technically in a condo (like a 1 story duplex) now. Our roof is 19yrs old and I believe will be replaced next year. I've been told we can't change insurance companies until the roof is replaced.

We have friends whose insurance doubled.

I believe insurance woes will help to drive people out of the state. Our Guv has solved the insurance crisis by making it difficult to sue insurance companies. Now he has time to ban drag queen story hour, fight with Disney, fiddle with K-12 education and state universities, revise history books, and run for president.

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