Assured of insurance?
One of my neighbors sent this great commentary out on the email list.
"2) Next, I do know enough about insurance as a licensed, life, health and
variable annuity agent to know that the underwriter and the underwriting
criteria which are published regularly by each firm, determine the rate level at
which you can get insured and what the determining factors are for not getting
insured.
So, first we need a state wide updated underwriting set of
criteria that set rates for various levels of compliance to hurricane and
disaster situations which need to be defined. That's probably a challenge
but doable. After all, almost everything everywhere is insured. These
criteria need to be widely discussed and advertised in each and every
community with representatives from the State Insurance Office touring the
state to explain the new codes in town hall meetings. By knowing
what "things" need to be done to homes and let's not forget small businesses,
that might be an incentive for someone say, in level two, ( not as good as
level one rating) to go get hurricane windows for their home. By
upgrading the windows they could hypothetically then qualify for the better rate
and so on.
IN the same set of thoughts about
underwiting, there should be a law that ins companies CAN NOT BLANKETLY
DISAPPROVE AN ENTIRE NEIGHBORHOOD ( e.g.SESHA) BUT MUST SEND AN INSURANCE
APPRAISER TO EACH AND EVERY HOUSE ON AN INDIVIDUAL BASIS. This lazy,
unprofessional and abusive refusal to consider homes we all know would pass
inspection is the most galling to me. And this is where the arrogance of
those in charge really shows. Perhaps there are other clauses that should
be inserted for this general idea to make sure that each house is fairly
evaluated #1 and #2 given the chance to make improvements within X period of
time to qualify for the better rates or even just to get insurance
altogether.
3) Can't pay or afford the upgrades? That's
where a partnership between private and public sector can help individual home
owners. By issuing both a tax credit for improvements AND very
favorable payment plans PLUS some kind of discount from the home
improvement industry, most home owners could look forward to making many if not
all of the improvements to disasters over time. Right now there is a
program that resembles my idea. I just had a tankless water heater
installed by TECO GAS. The unit is $1250. It saves an enormous
amount of gas and water and electricity. Plus you can take a shower, run both
the dishwasher and clothes washer and get full hot water!
I went from .48 thermal units regular usage to .03! Even with the rise in
gas prices, I am quite ahead. All I pay TECO is $25/month with no interest
for the unit. I had to pay $165 out of pocket to have an electrician
come and pull a CAT 5 cable for the unit and to hook up the
juice. Others may have to upgrade their electrical box to have more
energy put into the home. Now truthfully I could not afford this unit if I
had to pay for it now. But I have been on a personal campaign to go
through everything I do to lower costs and improve efficiency.
This was one item.
4) Next, I read that there was
some talk of not insuring any home over $1million that is on the shore. I
think we should go further. I don't think we should insure any home
over $1million that is: built on a barrier reef island, on the
shore, on a canal, so many feet near a lake, in a swamp that a developer filled
in and sold houses on, next to a river that has a history of overflowing
etc.
It is time for the homeowners to do more due diligence
before they buy a property. All the water kinds of damage that
have happened to an area previously should be available on a State
Government Website for all to see and understand so that no realtor ( sorry
guys) or other person/s who stand to profit from a sale could dupe a potential
buyer about the past hazards of owning said property. For the selling home
owner who gets caught in this no win situation and who owned the property before
the new rules applied, there could be a tax credit for the depreciation of their
property. So, if you love the coast, great! You pay for $1million
worth of insurance and self insure thereafter. The rest of Fl. does not
want to pay for your frivolity. I ALSO READ OF A $25,000 LIMIT ON SINK
HOLES. THat seems harsh, but there has to be some pain withthe gain to get
agreement on such a broad new program.
5) Next.
Hopefully, these steps and others that I haven't thought of or heard from others
about should REOPEN the doors to the
homeowners insurance industry again...along with a potential
boomlet in home renovation across Fl. Even though we're suggestingstate
and perhaps federal tax credits, the State should pay LESS in the long
run for improved homes and small businesses that they are often called upon to
bail out.
That's as far as I've gotten, but I have been
thinking that if we can cobble together a well written and researched manifesto
and circulate it on the internet to all Florida home owners...we might begin to
get somewhere.
When you stop to think about it...what is so
hard about creating a new set of rules to create as much of a win win as
possible. Don't you think that, even in this most cynical of times, that
it is unbelieveable that our officials have neither the guts, creativity or
committment to deal with this most serious problem. I propse a blue ribbon
committee comprised of all the affected parties, state, local, industry and an
across the board sampling of Fl home owners and small business people to jump
start this process. Times a wasting.
Like some of you, I am
wondering if I will be able to afford to retire in my own home and community if
this continues...so I'm kinda motivated.
Looking forward to hearing
your thoughts and ideas and strategies. This community has a lot of great
minds and can do. Maybe we can make a difference here
also.
Thank you in advance if you read this far..."
11 comments:
One of the reasons we moved to Florida was the inexpensive cost of living. Even though wages are below national averages here (well below for my career), the balance was in our favor. Tax increases (state didn't register our 2000 deed and re-assessed our taxes in 2004 when the error was corrected) and homeowner's insurance increases (over $2000 more now than in 2000 when we purchased), housing costs here are quickly approaching that of places like Miami and Southern California. The wages, however, are not.
If something isn't done soon, only the very wealthy will be able to afford living in historic homes, or the homes will be demolished and replaced with modern, insurable structures.
I love my home, but $550/mo in insurance and taxes (and rising again this year) is too much.
There have been some discussions in OSH concerning the creation of a co-op to get insurance for members.
Seminole Heights suffers from several problems.
1, the demographic data that insurance companies use is old.
2, we had a spate of mysterious fires that caused private companies to increase rates. Tampa has a bad reputation (thanks to the mafia) of insurance scams. We still have a lot of house fires in these areas.
3, though our area is out of a flood zone and high risk, we have to share the burden of those areas.
If we joined with other neighborhoods and had our own vetting process where we assured that only homes where homeowners were present, electrical and plumbing met certain standards. Perhaps requiring storm shuttering and higher speed roofing.
Yes, it sounds like a lot of work, but it could mean saving thousands of dollars per home. And it could generate income for Civic and Neighborhood Associations.
I'd be interested in this. Anyone that has citizens insurance already has upgraded electrical. Most of the rehabbed homes also have upgraded plumbing. Roofing is pricey, but again, most of us will do this sooner or later. Windows are the biggie... I would not be willing to tear out my 1920s windows with their 80yo glass. Those windows lend far too much historic character to just toss away and replace with vinyl hurrcane ones. Shutters I could live with and have been considering anyway.
Speaking of windows, ours were replaced by the PO's at some point with the ugly aluminum frames circa 70s-80s Im guessing. We'd love to go back to historical wood, but would consider new wood up to code. Any hints on a good source for affordable windows?
there are no "affordable" wood windows
Perhaps I should rephrase, a source with reasonably honest pricing, and good quality or even a source of salvaged windows. The range of prices in the limited shopping around I've done is huge.
Steve Quillian in Hampton Terrace is a woodworker/carptenter that has made a few good-quality double-hung and casement windows for friends. I've hear nothing but glowing reviews of his work and I live what I've seen.
These are built exactly, to the detail, like historic windows. That means they are single pane, too. I'm not exactly sure what he charges, but I know he likes to do windows. I believe he's the $500 range for high quality woods like solid oak sashes--installed.
At least one manufacturer makes sold wood sash windows (without weights) that have insulated double-pane glass in them. The panes are individual, not those silly things with the glued on trellis bits. I believe they are in the range of $600 per double-hung window not installed.
I am unsure as to what building code has to say about original, double hung windows. I bet they don't meet code anymore. But it's not like we can get insurance anyway, right?
As a matter of coincidence, I've received my Citzens Insurance bill for this year just today. Premium: $3253 And that inlcudes the age surcharge where they have the age of my home as at least 10 years newer than it really is (they have my neighbor's home's age in there for some reason.) I could correct the error and pay more, I guess.
I had the Historic Windows guys make mine last summer. Daymion was the owner's name. They were around $500 each if I recall. Very well made, but they are slow - so add at least a week or two onto whatever estimate you get. If I'd known Steve did windows I would have gone there =)
Thank you for the info. I will definitely give Mr. Quillian a call when we are ready to do this. Most likely we will have to address one set of windows at a time.
AngelSil, Damion did two windows for us as well. They were simply too warped for me to save (but I saved the glass). However, he had/has some personal issues that kept getting in the way of timely work. I believe he moved out of Tampa about the same time Steve took up residence in Seminole Heights. In other words, you probably didn't have the choice of using Steve when Damion was around.
when we need our 7 casement windows build, Steve will be my first choice. (If y'all don't get him too busy!)
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