Wind Insurance is Outrageous

[Luke Warm]

Quick update. We decided to pay off the house and cancel wind insurance. I talked to the insurance company about just keeping regular house insurance but they said no insurance company would cover us because we have some cast iron drain pipes and our water heaters are too old. So until we got that stuff replaced we are back with Citizens. The water heater replacement is about $5k for two heaters. No idea how much the cast iron pipe replacement will be. There's not that much but we might as well replace the clay sewer lateral while we're at it. I guess it's only money.

Wow.  Do you do stuff yourself?  We installed our own water heaters (electric, not gas) and the A.O. Smith water heater itself (50 gallon, not heat pump though) was about $1000.  We built everything in our house and did all roofing/plumbing/wiring/framing/drywall ourselves.  I would not pay $12,000 a year to insure a roof when it only cost me about $6,000 in materials to shingle our entire roof with Owens Corning composite shingles.

When we had roof damage during a previous hurricane, the roof damage was the least of our expenses. Yes, our insurance company paid to replace our roof, but they also paid for the replacement of significant amounts of water-damaged drywall/insulation/etc. throughout our home. (Plus we had other insurance-covered damages - our pool cage, fences, large new stucco cracks on the exterior, etc.) Our total damages were, IIRC, somewhere around $150k. Yes, we could have saved money by doing it ourselves, but there was a lot more to it than just the cost of shingles.

We recently moved (elsewhere in SWFL) and homeowners/flood insurance premiums were a major factor in our home selection. My insurance agent was amazing, sending me quotes for any house that we seriously considered.  We were looking in the $450-600k price range (all outside of flood zones) and total insurance prices (homeowners + flood) varied from $3500-11,000/year. We ended up buying a newer home in flood zone X and evacuation zone D, with homeowner's insurance of $2635/year and flood insurance of $1146/year. (Yes, we pay for flood insurance even though we're not in a flood zone. I've seen too many houses flood outside of flood zones with recent tropical storms and hurricanes due to infrastructure/drainage issues.)

Our county had been using the 2006 FEMA maps to determine the flood zone. Now in the last few months they are requiring the newest maps which are from 2017. There is a significant difference between the two maps. I wonder if the county could be held liable if you built your house in flood zone X in 2018 based on the 2006 map but now the house is in a less desirable flood zone based on the 2017 map?

[Gremlin]

Quick update. We decided to pay off the house and cancel wind insurance. I talked to the insurance company about just keeping regular house insurance but they said no insurance company would cover us because we have some cast iron drain pipes and our water heaters are too old. So until we got that stuff replaced we are back with Citizens. The water heater replacement is about $5k for two heaters. No idea how much the cast iron pipe replacement will be. There's not that much but we might as well replace the clay sewer lateral while we're at it. I guess it's only money.

Wow.  Do you do stuff yourself?  We installed our own water heaters (electric, not gas) and the A.O. Smith water heater itself (50 gallon, not heat pump though) was about $1000.  We built everything in our house and did all roofing/plumbing/wiring/framing/drywall ourselves.  I would not pay $12,000 a year to insure a roof when it only cost me about $6,000 in materials to shingle our entire roof with Owens Corning composite shingles.

When we had roof damage during a previous hurricane, the roof damage was the least of our expenses. Yes, our insurance company paid to replace our roof, but they also paid for the replacement of significant amounts of water-damaged drywall/insulation/etc. throughout our home. (Plus we had other insurance-covered damages - our pool cage, fences, large new stucco cracks on the exterior, etc.) Our total damages were, IIRC, somewhere around $150k. Yes, we could have saved money by doing it ourselves, but there was a lot more to it than just the cost of shingles.

We recently moved (elsewhere in SWFL) and homeowners/flood insurance premiums were a major factor in our home selection. My insurance agent was amazing, sending me quotes for any house that we seriously considered.  We were looking in the $450-600k price range (all outside of flood zones) and total insurance prices (homeowners + flood) varied from $3500-11,000/year. We ended up buying a newer home in flood zone X and evacuation zone D, with homeowner's insurance of $2635/year and flood insurance of $1146/year. (Yes, we pay for flood insurance even though we're not in a flood zone. I've seen too many houses flood outside of flood zones with recent tropical storms and hurricanes due to infrastructure/drainage issues.)

Our county had been using the 2006 FEMA maps to determine the flood zone. Now in the last few months they are requiring the newest maps which are from 2017. There is a significant difference between the two maps. I wonder if the county could be held liable if you built your house in flood zone X in 2018 based on the 2006 map but now the house is in a less desirable flood zone based on the 2017 map?

2017 is still horribly out of date.  International best practice is to revise flood mapping even two to four years depending on the overall riskiness of the local area.  Of course, there's no need to update the maps if climate change is a hoax. /s

[GilesMM]

Quick update. We decided to pay off the house and cancel wind insurance. I talked to the insurance company about just keeping regular house insurance but they said no insurance company would cover us because we have some cast iron drain pipes and our water heaters are too old. So until we got that stuff replaced we are back with Citizens. The water heater replacement is about $5k for two heaters. No idea how much the cast iron pipe replacement will be. There's not that much but we might as well replace the clay sewer lateral while we're at it. I guess it's only money.

I have heard that if you drop coverage in FL it makes it nearly impossible to get it again and thus can affect resale value.  True?

Did you get as many quotes as you could from independent agents?

[merula]

Most insurance carriers ask if you've ever had a lapse in coverage and can decline or charge differently on that basis, because there's actuarial data to support that people who only buy insurance sometimes are worse risks.

I wouldn't be surprised if carriers in Florida are doing that as well, although you would probably still be able to get coverage through the FAIR plan.

[Sibley]

Be sure you're not being pennywise and pound foolish. Sure, the insurance is expensive. But not having it might end up being far more expensive in the long run, and not because you had a wind storm.

[startingsmall]

Our county had been using the 2006 FEMA maps to determine the flood zone. Now in the last few months they are requiring the newest maps which are from 2017. There is a significant difference between the two maps. I wonder if the county could be held liable if you built your house in flood zone X in 2018 based on the 2006 map but now the house is in a less desirable flood zone based on the 2017 map?

That's a good question. I wouldn't think so, since the flood maps are made by FEMA and not the county. Also, it's only natural that flood zones will change over time due to climate change, development, etc.

Our county's flood maps were last updated in 2022