Hurricane insurance (foreclosure, mortgage, house)

[mipbar]

If your home is paid off, is homeowner's or hurricane insurance required ?

[jghorton]

That's kind of like asking, "Since motorcycle helmets aren't required by law, should I wear one when riding?"

You don't have to buy hurricane insurance on your mortgage-free home --and will probably do just fine ... unless a hurricane hits. -- Even so, the hurricane insurance deductible in Florida is so severe (2-3-percent of the home value), one is pretty much self-insured for anything, but, a catastrophic hit.

[mipbar]

Originally Posted by jghorton

That's kind of like asking, "Since motorcycle helmets aren't required by law, should I wear one when riding?"

You don't have to buy hurricane insurance on your mortgage-free home --and will probably do just fine ... unless a hurricane hits. -- Even so, the hurricane insurance deductible in Florida is so severe (2-3-percent of the home value), one is pretty much self-insured for anything, but, a catastrophic hit.

Thanks, yeah I know it's dumb to not carry insurance, it's a big reason I'm thinking of not moving to the area. What do you mean the deductible is so high? If you have a 100k house, you have to pay 2k to 3k before insurance takes affect? And, you have to pay high premiums as well?

[Postal77]

Originally Posted by mipbar

Thanks, yeah I know it's dumb to not carry insurance, it's a big reason I'm thinking of not moving to the area. What do you mean the deductible is so high? If you have a 100k house, you have to pay 2k to 3k before insurance takes affect? And, you have to pay high premiums as well?

If you live here, I'd highly advise it. If you don't have it, you are self insuring,which means you may b be responsible for tens of thousands in damage.

Our $300k house has a $9k hurricane deductible.

[mph101]

Originally Posted by jghorton

That's kind of like asking, "Since motorcycle helmets aren't required by law, should I wear one when riding?"

You don't have to buy hurricane insurance on your mortgage-free home --and will probably do just fine ... unless a hurricane hits. -- Even so, the hurricane insurance deductible in Florida is so severe (2-3-percent of the home value), one is pretty much self-insured for anything, but, a catastrophic hit.

You don't have to buy any insurance on a mortgage free home`` and probably do just fine unless it catches on fire, gets burglarized or some neighbor kid climbs a tree on your property and falls out of it.

[mph101]

Originally Posted by mipbar

Thanks, yeah I know it's dumb to not carry insurance, it's a big reason I'm thinking of not moving to the area. What do you mean the deductible is so high? If you have a 100k house, you have to pay 2k to 3k before insurance takes affect? And, you have to pay high premiums as well?

In Florida wind mitigation (tropical storms) is not a part of your home owners coverage. It is a separate and very expensive coverage. If you can find it the deductible ranges from 0 to 10%. I carrry 5% self insure. That means it won't pay any thing up to 5% of the cost comes out of my pocket first. Per Occurrence. This means if HUrricane Betty hits and does me in for 18,500 I got the first 5%. Then 2 months later Tropical Storm Henry zaps my house for another hit and 8,800 in damage its a new occurrence and the deductible from Betty means nothing. Start over.

Wind mitigation insurance is not the same as home owners. If a tornado hits your house or thunderstorm winds not related to a hurricane (named tropical storm) it is covered under your homeowners with the standard deductible per your policy.

Age of the house, construction (roof type) all change the cost. The state operates Citizens and it was the only game in town and the largest insurance carrier since the wicked 2004-2005 season when all major carriers left Florida. Citizens is trying to depopulate and move polices to small unproven POS worthless junk carriers. Be wary of them. They offer great rates (which are not guaranteed and often much higher then what is quoted) and you cancel your citizens then they do a home inspection and cancel your policy until you bring your home up to their code and you can't get back into Citizens

My l home is about $135,000, small about 1,200 sq ft, it is old and has a gable roof I am paying $1,700 a yr for homeowners with a 5% wind mitigation deductible. This is with Citizens, I know that no other carrier will offer me better and likely it will cost much more. Before Citizens accepted me I was about to be foreclosed on as I couldn't get any carrier after nationwide dropped me in 2004 other then surplus line carrier (i.e. surplus line carrier Lloyds of London) and my premium at that time was rising from 3,300 a yr to over 5,000. During those years after Andrew if private carrier offered you a policy regardless of the cost, you couldn't be accepted into the state pool of Citizens. Luckily that changed.

Citizens no longer covers my solid separate 2 car garage as it s not attached to the house even though it was build at the same time and using the same materials. Location is vital, you can check citizens insurance page out for state wind mitigation maps

Do not forget that flood coverage isn't included in wind mitigation or a home owners policy, nor sinkhole.

Home owners and flood insurance are in crisis the closer you are to the water and this situation shouldn't be over looked when considering a home purchase regardless of how sweet a deal you think you are getting on the house. It could cause a foreclosure or bankruptcy even though the house payment and house look sweet.

[rivadell]

If you own your home outright, you do not have to carry insurance, also if you live closer to the gulf, beaches you will pay more for insurance, I live 25 miles inland from the Gulf and my insurance is a whole lot less expensive, hwy 20 is the dividing line, below it cost is higher, above it costs are lower.