With each passing hurricane it becomes more difficult for homeowners in the gulf states to secure howeowner insurance policies. Now Nationwide has announced that they are dropping 39,000 policies in Florida. This follows announcements from Allstate and and State Farm that they were dropping 156,000 policies due to the 2004-2005 hurricane season.
“It goes without saying that this is a difficult business decision, but one we need to make to continue to be there for our remaining customers,” spokesman Eric Hardgrove said.
Ugh. Being a corn-fed Midwestern type and all that, we don’t have much experience with this sort of thing. Anyone have any advice for the soon-to-be uninsured?
Nationwide dropping coverage for thousands of Florida homeowners [Sun-Sentinel]
(Photo:Bob Jagendorf)
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@texasannie:
Ironic to hear that comment from someone with Texas in their name. Texas is a gulf coast state, is it not?
Like Texas, there’s a big difference between different regions of Florida. Watch what goes on when a storm makes its way into the gulf -there’s no way you could pay me to live on the gulf coast of any state; Texas, Florida, or otherwise. I’d be hesitant about the southern Atlantic coast as well. By the time you get up into the central Atlantic coast and beyond you’re just as likely to get whacked by a hurricane in the Carolinas.
Eyebrows makes a good point about folks becoming desensitized to their own local natural disasters. I’ve lived through hurricanes and ice storms, and the impact was roughly the same for most homeowners – minor damage to homes, loss of power, loss of water, etc. You just don’t get the helicopter flyovers of leveled trailer parks with ice storms.
“You couldn’t pay me to live in Florida.. My mother moved down there and every time I visit I only stay half as long as planned becasue I just can’t take it anymore.. Between the heat and the fact that no matter what direction you look in the only thing you see is something that is man made, and it is usually a strip mall.. No thanks, I’ll take four seasons and a mountain view any day of the week..
Live free or die!! (guess where I”"
Strip mall? Your nuts. I grew up in Jersey. You want malls stay up there. You want fresh air, clean water, nice weather…come to Florida. Hurricanes are nothing if you prepare for them. There is always ample time to do that..unlike the floods, tornadoes, earthquakes etc that the rest of the country gets to deal with. Keep scraping your car out every winter…ill start mine up and just be on my way. suckers
I don’t think this is happening in Texas. Farmer’s pulled some similar crap a few year’s ago. They tried weaseling out of some howeowners policies. The state told them if they wanted out of those specific policies they would forfeit their licence to issue all policies in the state. Or something like that.
Texas has been pretty good historically about keeping the homeowners insurers in line. So at least our high property taxes are good for something. My dad and I have never had a problem filing a claim on our roof for hail damage and we’ve never had threats of cancellation. We only get wood roofing (which isn’t cheap) and hailstorms happen almost every year. However, I think our insurance company has seen the wisdom in letting us keep the wood roof. We’ve replaced our wood roof about a third as often as the neighbors.