Q&A of the Day – About Florida’s Property Insurance reform
Each day I’ll feature a listener question that’s been submitted by one of these methods.
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Today’s entry...
Insurance companies should do inspections every 2 years and give you a list of things they will not cover due to neglect. Maintenance of your house is your responsibility. People let fences and roofs go and hope a hurricane will destroy it so insurance will pay
Bottom Line: This is a note that’s in response to the story I shared regarding Florida’s new Assignment of Benefits reform (and the already announced 3.5% savings on Citizen’s policies as a result). You have a point about people who wait for natural disasters to file claims for repairs. Starting with the premise of your question – there generally are only three times inspections are carried out by property insurance companies. When you take out a new policy, file a claim and when there’s a change in regulations or laws that could apply to your property. It’s true that if you take out a policy, don’t change carriers and never file a claim – you may never hear from a property insurance inspector again. The irony is, for those who opt to wait for an opportunity to file an insurance claim rather than properly maintaining their property, it’ll likely cost them more over the long run given the already high cost of property insurance in south Florida and the higher increase that come for properties that have claim histories. Here’s the average property insurance cost in the tri-county area right now.
- Miami-Dade $5,298
- Palm Beach County: $4,521
- Broward County: $4319
This leads me to the next point. Citizen’s has announced reduced policy renewal rates by 3.5% on back of the AOB reform but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. You should shop around for insurance policies before renewing. The variance in policy premium changes between companies is huge this year. The range is anywhere from an increase of 14.9% year over year, to a decrease of 14.4% based on company. It's the biggest I’ve seen in over a decade and represents a difference of up to $1500 for the same policy based on your carrier.