A question about insurance

[SouthFloridawx]

Some Carriers have a 2% deductible for windstorm you want to check your dec. page.

On the declarations page, mine reads:

HURRICANE: $2,238 (2%)

[i]INSURED NOTE :THE PORTION OF YOUR PREMIMUM FOR HURRICANE COVERAGE IS $633[/i]

So that's one in the same as wind storm, yes?

Don't quote me but, it looks like your covered for hurricane and windstorm. Not flood!

yeahhhhhh

[seaswing]

Sorry, my does insurance covers floods but it is an addenum to my hurricane coverage. I bought it additionally.

[melhow]

Some Carriers have a 2% deductible for windstorm you want to check your dec. page.

On the declarations page, mine reads:

HURRICANE: $2,238 (2%)

[i]INSURED NOTE :THE PORTION OF YOUR PREMIMUM FOR HURRICANE COVERAGE IS $633[/i]

So that's one in the same as wind storm, yes?

Don't quote me but, it looks like your covered for hurricane and windstorm. Not flood!

yeahhhhhh

Read a couple posts back. I have flood.

[melhow]

Sorry, my does insurance covers floods but it is an addenum to my hurricane coverage. I bought it additionally.

Companies like Nationwide do offer flood insurance. With Citizens at least, it is not available. I had to go through the National Flood Insurance Program to get mine. Here's what I got, at least:

Your home, apartment or business may not be located in a floodplain, but they are still at risk of damage caused by flooding. The National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) offers lower-cost protection for residential and non-residential properties in low- to moderate-risk flood areas. The Preferred Risk Policy (PRP) makes lower-cost insurance rates available through several combinations of building and contents protections.

For just $112 a year, homeowners can purchase a minimum of $20,000 building and $8,000 contents coverage ($25 more if there is a basement).
Renters can pay as little as $39 per year for $8,000 contents coverage.
Business owners can buy $50,000 building and $50,000 contents coverage (per building) for only $500 per year.
Business owners who lease their space can purchase $50,000 contents coverage for just $121 per year.

I do not live in a flood plane. My insurance cost $264 for $150,000 dwelling coverage and $60,000 contents.

[SouthFloridawx]

Some Carriers have a 2% deductible for windstorm you want to check your dec. page.

On the declarations page, mine reads:

HURRICANE: $2,238 (2%)

[i]INSURED NOTE :THE PORTION OF YOUR PREMIMUM FOR HURRICANE COVERAGE IS $633[/i]

So that's one in the same as wind storm, yes?

Don't quote me but, it looks like your covered for hurricane and windstorm. Not flood!

yeahhhhhh

Read a couple posts back. I have flood.

you da man, man

[CajunMama]

Flood insurance is the best peace of mind i've ever purchased. I'm not in a floodzone, our realtor talked us out of buying it...8 months later I had 6" of water in my house. Many on my street didn't have it...we all do now though. My neighbor told me after the flood..."Anyone who lives south of I-10 should carry flood insurance"

[melhow]

On FEMA site. You can look up insurance companies offering flood insurance in your state:

http://www.fema.gov/nfipInsurance/companies.jsp

[seaswing]

I heard a couple of weeks ago that Nationwide, Alstate and Safeco will not be writing any policies in Florida after January, 2006. Alstate has already started canceling policies in Florida.

[frederic79]

Melhow said:

Something else that I'm thinking. I know that Nationwide does have an optional coverage that you can add onto your policy covering drain/sewage line backups. Is it possible that our flooding was not due necessarily to rising rainwater alone, but also in part to a retention drain back-up? If so, you might be in luck coverage-wise if you had this as a rider on your policy.

Melhow,
I do have this rider in the neighorhood of $20K plus $10K coverage for bio cleanup due to backup. This may indeed help. Thanks.

[Persepone]

Here in Massachusetts (according to my agent) you MUST have separate flood insurance for just about any sort of water damage to your home. The only time water in the home is covered (according to my agent--who says that things have changed here a lot in the last couple of years because of the Florida experience) is if you have (and can prove) a hole in the wall or the roof and the water in question comes through that hole in the wall or roof and if the wall or roof had not failed that the water would not have come into the house! So even if you have the hole in the wall or roof, if there was also flood water, you'd only be covered for the damage that was due to the hole in the wall or roof, not the water that came "up" or "into" the house as a result of flooding...

Note that all these new clauses in our policies up here sort of crept in. We have different deductible (5%) for any damage caused by a "Named Storm." So the minute a storm gets a name, our deductible is substantially higher than our regular deductible. You have to use a magnifying glass to actually READ these changes to your homeowner's policy and then you have to have a clue about what they might mean in actuality!

I'll bet that this has happened all over the country and people just are not paying attention. You've had the insurance policy for 10 years or so and it has one of those automatic inflation increases on it, etc. you just get that renewal bill and write a check--grumble a little about the increased cost--and don't take a magnifying glass out and read the stuff that came with the renewal that is disguised as "junk mail." In fact, ours sort of looked like an ad for something... But it actually is an amendment to our policy....

So, yeah. Wherever you are in the US, you'd probably better get out your insurance policy, read it, read all the junk that came with your renewal bill, and then get on the phone and make an appointment to sit down with your agent and have a serious discussion of all the fine print, etc. You may be totally shocked.

And about that flood insurance. Even if you do live on some mountain top, there is some sort of "upland flooding" that could affect you. And, as my insurance agent put it when pressed, almost no water damage is covered under insurance policies because water damage is the worst and the companies have been putting more and more and more exclusions in to the policies. We have a very low limit on "mold and mildew." It might buy a few cans of Lysol or bottles of bleach--but if we got flooded, it would not begin to address the issue. And if, for example, we had a pipe burst or a dishwasher malfunction etc. and cause water damage, it looks as if there are 100 weasel clauses that would prevent a claim for the resulting water damage. And then there is some new concept of "maintenance"--if the pipe is old, they weasel out because old pipes break sort of reasoning....
And someone else pointed out that there needs to be a separate rider for damage from backed up sewer pipes, backed up drains, municipal water feeds, etc.

Go and study your insurance policies.

By the way, our insurance agent claims that we would be "throwing our money away" by buying flood insurance because our area "never floods." I think a lot of people hear this from their agents--which is why they don't have flood insurance. The whole idea, however, is that if everyone does buy flood insurance, the cost will be lower because the claims will even out across the US. Yeah, some of us will pay for coverage we may never use--but that is a good thing, isn't it? Heck, I don't want to use my fire insurance--EVER! But I pay the premiums for that insurance. I think perhaps it should be the same for flood insurance!

[NastyCat4]

nfortunately, here in Florida, just about everyone in the state has to purchase hurricane insurance separate which covers floods.

NOT TRUE!!!!!!!! Wind and storm only covers damage from WIND. Rising water is covered only by FLOOD INSURANCE. PLEASE UNDERSTAND THAT STORM SURGE IS A FLOOD ISSUE. ANYBODY WHO OWNS A HOME ANYWHERE SHOULD HAVE FLOOD INSURANCE, OR THEY ARE BEING FOOLISH. Sorry to shout, but this is extremely important.

[obxicane]

By the way, our insurance agent claims that we would be "throwing our money away" by buying flood insurance because our area "never floods." I think a lot of people hear this from their agents--which is why they don't have flood insurance. The whole idea, however, is that if everyone does buy flood insurance, the cost will be lower because the claims will even out across the US. Yeah, some of us will pay for coverage we may never use--but that is a good thing, isn't it? Heck, I don't want to use my fire insurance--EVER! But I pay the premiums for that insurance. I think perhaps it should be the same for flood insurance!

Ask your agent to put that in writing for you. I work in insurance and I would never make that comment. I've seen enough places that I thought would never flood be covered by 5 - 10 feet of water.

If a client of mine does not want to purchase flood, I make them sign a statement that we have offered it to them. I don't want anyone coming back to me to try to sue me because I did not offer the coverage or told them they did not need it.