That sound you hear is my wallet weeping.

[digitaldiscipline]

Because my previous insurance company chose not to renew my policy, my annual home insurance bill is doubling this year because Citizen's Protective is the only entity that will insure GMBAN.  Yeah, that's gonna be a fun chunk of change to cough up.  How about the rest of you Floridenizens?

What frosts my McNuggets is what isn't touched on in the article - that private insurance companies don't need to be more affordable than Citizen's Protective, the supposed "insurer of last resort," which is intentionally more expensive, so as to encourage people to get insured elsewhere.  If the financial incentive isn't there for us, as consumers, to choose someone else, then why would we?

Also on the un-fun side of things was the price quote for new tires for Zim, since his are getting a little threadbare.  *prepares to cough up ~$650*

Note to self:  Get another price quote for a quartet of 195/50 R16's.

On what may or may not be a related note.... the Fearless Freak Forecasts have all been memory-tagged for ... well, someone might care.

Comments

[etcet.livejournal.com]

If I was rich, I'd still complain about a 100% increase in my insurance bill.

"I live in a small, older structure which has been around far, far longer than the paper-mache McMansions and trailers that form the bulk of insurance claims, and am on some of the highest ground in the county. Please explain to me, using small words and diagrams where appropriate, how it is impossible for you to insure me now, when you were perfectly capable of insuring me last week?"

[mighty-man.livejournal.com]

If you were rich, you'd still complain. Period.

Just out of curiosity -- did they specify why they aren't renewing? Is it just you, your neighborhood, your zip code, your county, your state?

If I remember correctly, part of the problem with the insurance companies is that FL law mandated that they cover certain things that they would not normally but couldn't charge more to cover it.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

The reason cited was, and I quote directly here, "100% crawlspace." Basically, if you have a house of a certain architectural style (most of which are older), they won't insure you, period.

I spoke with several alternate agencies, and they're not offering coverage to, in essence, anyone within five or ten MILES of the coast (for anyone familiar with local geography, the way it was phrased to me by State Farm was, "In Hillsborough county, we're not taking on anything west of I-75").

[mighty-man.livejournal.com]

Crawlspace? I take it that means your house is "stilted" or elevated? I know in CA, it's seriously frowned upon because if bad weather hits (earthquake or flooding), and any of the supports go, the house is basically gonna be ruined. Lethal Weapon II also comes to mind when it comes to taking out supports.

So basically, it's not you. It's half your county, the potentially crappy weather and having an old house (the latter surprises me least, given that if you were to build a house like that today, it probably wouldn't pass code).

The part that sucks: of those, you can't really change any of them. But what is the alternative? Don't pay the insurance and risk potentially losing your single largest asset? Probably not the wisest thing to do.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

that would be correct - the house is on [brick] pilings about 18" tall. i presume the risk that the underwriters are freaked out about is the wood structure being "blown off" of them or some such thing.

if there's oceanic flooding to a degree where my house has salt water in it, downtown tampa will be under something like forty feet of water, and there will be serious shit-hitting-fan situations going on.

[mighty-man.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's what I would imagine -- they're probably concerned that if any of the pilings go, you'd have significant damage to that section of the house.
Flooding: Better than that, your house would become insanely valuable now that it'd be beachfront property. =8-)