Cost/Availability of Flood/Wind/Hurricane Insurance after Ian (Melbourne: sale, condos)

[Reddog53]

Good Morning,

We live in Tehachapi, CA., and just purchased a mobile home in Melbourne, FL., the weekend before Hurricane Ian. Both of my daughters live there and my high school age grandson. The plan is/was to live temporarily in the mobile home while looking for a permanent home in Florida. After reading many articles and researching for additional information, it seems that the availability and cost of insurance may be restrictive. If anyone caught the 60 Minutes broadcast last night, then you see the concerns voice there.

Thoughts??

Best,
Reddog53

[Lillie767]

You will find some answers in these threads:

https://www.city-data.com/forum/reti...l#post64248991

https://www.city-data.com/forum/brev...l#post63498640

https://www.city-data.com/forum/brev...l#post61945846

[Rabflmom]

Originally Posted by Reddog53

Good Morning,

We live in Tehachapi, CA., and just purchased a mobile home in Melbourne, FL., the weekend before Hurricane Ian. Both of my daughters live there and my high school age grandson. The plan is/was to live temporarily in the mobile home while looking for a permanent home in Florida. After reading many articles and researching for additional information, it seems that the availability and cost of insurance may be restrictive. If anyone caught the 60 Minutes broadcast last night, then you see the concerns voice there.

Thoughts??

Best,
Reddog53

I am not sure if it was on 60 minutes or on one of the other news stories I have seen; but they talked to an independent insurance agent. What I saw in what he said is we are all pretty well *hit out of luck if you are in a hurricane with surge or flooding inland. Even if you have both wind and flood insurance the companies are going to say the other came first and not want to pay. It will be court case after court case battling to get either one to pay up .

BTW something I have not mentioned lately. If you own a condo and a lot of the other condos are owned by people who dropped insurance or were underinsured( a lot of times elderly people on fixed income in their 80s and 90s are behind or forget to pay) there may not be insurance money to rebuild. It happened in Brevard County South beaches after Hurricane Jeanne. A few condo buildings were never rebuilt.

[SuiteLiving]

Originally Posted by Rabflmom

I am not sure if it was on 60 minutes or on one of the other news stories I have seen; but they talked to an independent insurance agent. What I saw in what he said is we are all pretty well *hit out of luck if you are in a hurricane with surge or flooding inland. Even if you have both wind and flood insurance the companies are going to say the other came first and not want to pay. It will be court case after court case battling to get either one to pay up .

BTW something I have not mentioned lately. If you own a condo and a lot of the other condos are owned by people who dropped insurance or were underinsured( a lot of times elderly people on fixed income in their 80s and 90s are behind or forget to pay) there may not be insurance money to rebuild. It happened in Brevard County South beaches after Hurricane Jeanne. A few condo buildings were never rebuilt.

That's interesting, not sure how that works since individual owners are only insuring everything inside the walls, the association's insurance is supposed to rebuild the building up to the drywall. How did it work with the condos you're talking about?

[Rabflmom]

Originally Posted by SuiteLiving

That's interesting, not sure how that works since individual owners are only insuring everything inside the walls, the association's insurance is supposed to rebuild the building up to the drywall. How did it work with the condos you're talking about?

They were bulldozed and never rebuilt because some people were so far behind on their fees and did not have individual insurance on their units within the building.

[SuiteLiving]

Originally Posted by Rabflmom

They were bulldozed and never rebuilt because some people were so far behind on their fees and did not have individual insurance on their units within the building.

Thanks. I checked out my own Declaration of Condo to see how this would work for my building.

First, there would need to be substantial damage or total destruction, which is defined as more than 50% of the units becoming untenantable.

Then, the default would be to not rebuild and distribute the insurance proceeds unless 75% or more of the owners voted to rebuild within 90 days.

It sounds like the situation you described was probably enough to hit the substantial damage or total destruction level.

One thing to be mindful of then is if the damage doesn't reach that level and the building gets repaired, and the insurance proceeds are insufficient to pay for the repairs, an assessment will be made. Good reason to make sure the insurance coverage is adequate, even if it does cost more.

[1insider]

Originally Posted by SuiteLiving

Thanks. I checked out my own Declaration of Condo to see how this would work for my building.

First, there would need to be substantial damage or total destruction, which is defined as more than 50% of the units becoming untenantable.

Then, the default would be to not rebuild and distribute the insurance proceeds unless 75% or more of the owners voted to rebuild within 90 days.

It sounds like the situation you described was probably enough to hit the substantial damage or total destruction level.

One thing to be mindful of then is if the damage doesn't reach that level and the building gets repaired, and the insurance proceeds are insufficient to pay for the repairs, an assessment will be made. Good reason to make sure the insurance coverage is adequate, even if it does cost more.

This is exactly what happened to the old 2 story condos downtown Cocoa Beach on the ocean that were where the new Surf is currently under construction. Building was severely damaged in one of the 2004 storms and the master policy was not sufficient to pay for the rebuild and the owners didn't have the money to make up the difference. Had nothing to do with their having individual policies on their units. It was all about insufficient coverage on the master policy. They each eventually accepted their share of the master policy payoff and their share of the land sale to the developer.

I believe that's probably what happened to the complex mom mentioned.