Hurricanes: Lack Thereof

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

No Hurricanes, but rates keep rising:

"Even in hugely profitable periods, the rate hikes just keep coming."

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article...ICLE/131219928

"No hurricanes, but Florida’s insurance rates keep rising"

http://tbo.com/weather/no-hurricanes...ng-b82496625z1

Well, real reporters for real news outlets read by real people thought it was a topic worth reporting.

For me it was just an epiphany, an ah-hah, which led me to discover where the money's going.

[rapmarks Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close rapmarks]

We purchased hurricane shutters at great expense about 6 or 7 years ago, got credited on the wind mitigation study to lower our premiums. Got a new roof lat year. thought we were gong to do well on new study , It sems they changed the hurricane shutters code last year, now we need a stamp on our shutters. We have had two different companies out; there is no difference between our shutters and the stamped shutters, but ours don't pass code so our rates are going up.

[M. Henley Class President Find all posts View Profile Close M. Henley]

Good one as usual!!

[M. Henley Class President Find all posts View Profile Close M. Henley]

Jim, let us know when you get to Florida so I can have someone do a hurricane dance so that your premiums will be justified.

Here is the good one that I was referring to. Tony is a master at this!!

[ronparise Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close ronparise]

No question that insurance is a racket, and way too much of my money is going to the insurance companies but thats not news. Warren Buffet got rich investing in companies like GEICO. You are just a little late to the party. Most of us that own property in Florida had our ah- hah moment a long time ago

Its at least partially off set this time of the year when my electric bill drops to almost nothing (no heating or air-conditioning fuel to pay for) and no need pay for a vacation, (my pool is heated by the sun)

Welcome to Paradise

[rapmarks Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close rapmarks]

Ron, wish we had a like button here.

[chriskre Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close chriskre]

Some of us old time Floridians self insure when we get rid of that pesky bank note.
I know it's risky but you mitigate the loss by spending that money on impact windows
and hurricane shutters and making sure the hurricane straps are on like they are supposed to be.

I've got 4 properties. Insurance would be more than 15K a year.
So far I've come out ahead in the last 8-9 years.

I did have to put a new 30K roof on one of the properties but it would have had to be done anyway
cause it wasn't done right to begin with and wasn't because of any hurricane damage.
Now it's nicely strapped down like it should have been in the first place and the particle board is gone.
Now that it has a new roof I put insurance on it and it's 5K a year meeting their inspection criteria
which of course you have to pay for just to see if you qualify.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

As always when this comes up, I/we do not insure our Florida house, even without a bank note, solely for the property damage benefit. It is insured because it has to be insured for our Personal Liability Umbrella to extend to it.

A few thousand dollars loss can be dealt with, but a 2 or 3 million dollar judgment, or even the cost of a litigation, would be problematic. Having multiple properties increases exposure and risk.

I/we have considered dropping "Wind", which is the 80% part of our premium I refer to when this comes up, but . . . .

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

As far as the dance goes, our area is purportedly protect by ancient Indian inhabitants. Guess they have a better dance.

But, what the Hey, dance away.


- - - - - -
The truth of it is that so many insurance companies have folded after shifting premium revenue elsewhere, or just abandoned Florida altogether, that it's amazing insurance is even available.

[Carolinian Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Carolinian]

One of the big problems in North Carolina on Wind coverage is that the Department of Insurance started letting the insurance companies use Computer Modelling instead of historic loss records to set rates, and when they did,insurance premiums in the east went crazy high. The insurance companies set up the computer models and they put their thumb on the scales, The whole coastal area, several counties in from the beach pay those high rates. If you are on the county line almost out of that zone, you pay the same inflated rates as someone directly on the beach. The fact that historically going back many years, a substantial majority of wind claims and a substantial majority of the money paid out come from counties inland from that area does not seem to faze the insurance companies. I have been through many hurricanes and never had a wind claim and neither have any of my neighbors in our part of the historic district. We are also out of the flood zone and not had any problems with that either from hurricanes. Some other neighborhoods have had water rises from the river in hurricanes and flood claims.

I was also president of an OBX timeshare when we were closed for major hurricane repairs some years ago, but even being right on the beach, while we had major flood claims from the water, the damage attributed to wind was not enough to even file a wind claim.

In the coastal part of the state, people are more cognizant of the need to have good roofs and to not have large trees close enough to fall on the house, and that helps reduce wind claims. The farther inland you go, the less people seem to pay attention to such things.

One of our legislators has talked about organizing a class action lawsuit against the insurance companies asserting unfair business practices by the insurance companies. I have pointed out to him the need to be sure lawyers involved would not sell out their clients for a big legal fee as seems to happen too often in that kind of case. I wonder if the insurance companies would be intimidated into settling for injunctive relief going forward based on the huge liability they would potentially have for reimbursement of past excessive premiums, which would be trebled under the statute and would add up to some really big money.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

One of our legislators has talked about organizing a class action lawsuit against the insurance companies asserting unfair business practices by the insurance companies.

Gosh, I bet he was wise enough not to talk about it on an Internet forum.

[tonyg Goomba & Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close tonyg]

As far as the dance goes, our area is purportedly protect by ancient Indian inhabitants. Guess they have a better dance.

But, what the Hey, dance away....

My peeps are great dancers with lots of championships. Better batten down the hatches.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

or hatten down the batches

On my long drive I figured out that Midwestern people go to Florida for the Winter to save the hassle of trying to figure out how to reset each clock.

When they're wrong, it's time to go to Florida. When they're wrong again, it's time to go back.

Don't tell anyone, but I'm sitting in my southern easy chair, using Comcast/Xfinity Internet, which I have no idea why it is still on. I'm expecting it to quit at any time.

[tonyg Goomba & Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close tonyg]

Looks like they did the wrong dance and got a typhoon instead- better luck next week.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

Oh yeah, if we dropped "Wind" on our homeowners, we'd drop our flood insurance, too.