The roofing business in Miami seems to be recovering. Right now we are replacing a tile roof with a standing seam metal roof in Miami Springs and replacing two other tile roofs. One is also in the Springs and the other in Biscayne Park. These three projects have one thing in common, and it has nothing to do with the roofs. None of the three owners carries homeowners windstorm insurance coverage on their property and these people are by no means poor. One is a doctor, another successful businessman and the third is comfortably retired. All of them have chosen to be self-insured.
On July 1, 2007 Florida passed a law allowing homeowners who own their homes outright and don't have mortgages to eliminate their homeowner’s policies. This included coverage to replace contents of their homes in the event they sustain damage or are destroyed by hurricane or fire.
 |
| Metal Roof in Kendall |
I have my suspicions here. The insurance companies can’t be happy with this so, considering their influence in Tallahassee, how did this law pass? Could there have been yet another class action suit brewing over this? The industry may have read the tea leaves and decided to sit out a fight they could not win. After all, it seems only fair that homeowners should have this right.
 |
| Hurricane Andrew 1992 - Still stirring things up |
Over the years I have heard homeowners express their anger over the rising cost of homeowners insurance and have made this half-joking suggestion: “Drop them. If your house is paid off, then heck with the insurance companies. Put a metal roof on and shutter your windows. Install smoke alarms and fireproof as much as possible. Maybe just go with fire and liability and cancel your windstorm policy. Then put your would-be premium payments into an account. Before you know it, you’ll have yourself covered and the rest is gravy.”
Not so surprisingly, many homeowners are doing exactly that.
No comments:
Post a Comment