Before about 1870 or so a fire policy paid for fire – just fire. No wind, no hail, no hard fealings, just fire.
If we went back to that things would be lots simpler.
Where do I start? First of all insurance agents want to sell flood coverage, they get paid commission to do so, if you don\’t sell it they make no money. Consumers want the coverage, but don\’t think they need to spend the money on it after they find out how much it costs. Insurance companies are regulated by each state and must file the policy forms for approval, does the Department of insurance have any responsibility in approving forms (all of them) that exclude flood loss? The answer is NO because the departments know that flood is available from NFIP (the fed) to anyone that wants it, at a lower cost than any insurance company would offer it. AND IT IS PASTED ON THE FRONT OF THE HO POLICY. Should banks force people to buy flood insurance for all loans?, it is questionable now if it is legal to force people to buy a federally backed product in high risk zones just to get a loan. The fed is responsible for determining and setting the flood zones, this would allow for a rezoning effort that would put everyone in the high risk zones, I suppose that is one way to make it happen. If flood coverage comes from the fed and homeowners policies exclude it why are we not seeing the NFIP sued or brought into this action or asking them to retroactively offer coverage for the billions in losses. It is impossible for most agents in that area to even produce the signed rejection of coverage since the offices were wiped clean off the earth. If the FED sets the zones and the FED requires flood in high risk areas and the Fed sets the rate for flood and the FED backs the banks with FDIC then ultimately the FED will pay out either in flood claims or banks bailout when the people default on the loans that did not happen to be in high risk areas. A huge area of Mississippi that is coastal and that was flooded was NOT in the high risk zones. 1 bloock off the Gulf of Mexico was not high risk. If anything the FED is guilty of giving some people a false sense that they were not suseptible to flooding and the banks are left holding the bag which means that the fed will bail them out anyway.
Politicians can not be honest and tell the people what is right, they have an innate nature to do what protects their office and do whatever it takes to get re-elected or elected to the next office. If they would just come forth and say the HO policies have never included flood coverage and you had the chance to buy flood coverage or better yet \”you should have bought it\” then more people would not be stuck waiting and hoping for the jackpot to open up and spill money in their laps. Insurance companies will fold before they pay flood losses even if court ordered. A contract must be enforced or it is no good. Carriers will NOT pay these flood losses under ho polices, no matter what the court decides, and they should not.
Unfortunately, the only time that politicians ever hold the citizens accountable is when the group that should be held accountable is too small to create a politically significant voting block. Considering the latest statistics just out about how many people buy flood coverage, the number of ninnies is way too high to reckon with, politically.
Unfortunately, rather than take the measured approach, like the MS IC did, the MS AG went looking for the \”ninny vote\”. It’s a win-win for him. If he prevails, he is a hero (albeit on a short term basis; wait until HO coverage is only available from surplus lines carriers). If eventually he loses, he is still a hero, because at least he tried. In most political arenas, HERO = VOTES.
Meanwhile, people/developers will insist on building and re-building in flood prone areas; people/developers will not take into account the potential for flood (or artificially increasing the natural flood risk)when planning/designing home/building sites and infrastructure; and people/developers will again be caught with their pants down, seeking a government solution (be it litigation or handouts) to a problem of their own causation.
People who don\’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Unfortunately, the rest of us have to pay for it.
A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the public treasure. From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most money from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world\’s great civilizations has been two hundred years. These nations have progressed through the following sequence: from bondage to spiritual faith, from spiritual faith to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependency, from dependency back to bondage.
Alexander Tyler
(regarding the fall of the Athenian Republic) circa 1810
I am certain that change arising out of the \”04\” and \”05\” storms will produce a government funded hurricane policy similar to the current flood policy. A homeowners will not cover damage of any sort from a hurricane, the hurricane coverage, flood or wind, will come from the \”Hurricane\” policy.
There is a \”hurricane policy\” in Texas. It covers Windstorm and Hail and the storm surge. The actual name is Texas Windstorm Insurance Association.
Proper coverage on the coast is regular property coverage – homeowners if it\’s an owner occ house – Windstorm Association policy and Fed Flood Insurance.
No reason to reinvent the wheel, it\’s been done.
Texas has the TWIA and some other stateshave something similar, but most coastal states do not.
Additionally, the \”04\” and \”05\” hurricanes have had a severe impact on national finances and on political careers, an impact that will spawn change.
In order to carry the national cost of the hurricanes predicted in this cycle there will be a national hurricane policy.
It seems that many folks and insurance people are missing an important point. There are many of us who are concerned, not about getting paid for water damage, but for WIND damage. State Farm, in particular, is not paying for proven wind damage, even with engineers reports and forensic weather reports as proof. They are saying that it does not matter if the tornadoes and high winds blew our homes away, even if it happened hours before the water came. The quote many of us are hearing from them is, \”We are not paying for wind damage (which is covered in our policies), because with this storm, if the wind didn\’t take your home, the water was going to come in a take it anyway!\” How ridiculous…have you seen the homes that are totally destroyed , trees down, everything in shreds, and just a short distance away, similar construction homes are still standing, altho flooded and unlivable? THAT IS BECAUSE TORNADOES AND FLASHES OF VERY HIGH WINDS made a path thru many, many areas and destroyed everything in its path. The standing houses were only hit by the water…they may be moved and gutted, but in the most part, many of them are still in identifiable as a house. The Mississippi Ins.Commission has stated in emails to us that they have told the Insurance Executives that they need to pay for wind damage, and the executives have agreed that they would. However, behind the backs of the Ins. Commission, the representatives of State Farm (in particular) are continuing to deny our wind coverage.The courts must interpret and apply the provisions of the State Farm policies BEFORE anyone goes to mediation. State Farm representatives must be knowledgeable and honest enough to advise the parties of the rulings of the court, with regard to the coverages of the policy. Mediation BEFORE the courts interpret the policies is a waste of time. So, for all of you who think that we are only out to get money from the insurance companies to cover water damages, which we realize is an excluded coverage in many cases…wise up.
Many of us had Hurricane policies…if that does not mean wind or wind and water…then why did they sell it to us in the first place. WE do NOT WANT ANYTHING THAT WE DID NOT PAY FOR…BUT WE DO INTEND TO FIGHT TO BE PAID FOR WHAT IS LEGALLY OURS.If you are not walking in our shoes, you may some day. Be careful how you criticize and judge.
How about a national kick-in-the-butt for any state or local government that doesn\’t pay attention to basics?
Not doing these sort of is like not buying a fire truck for your fire department.
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Before about 1870 or so a fire policy paid for fire – just fire. No wind, no hail, no hard fealings, just fire.
If we went back to that things would be lots simpler.
Where do I start? First of all insurance agents want to sell flood coverage, they get paid commission to do so, if you don\’t sell it they make no money. Consumers want the coverage, but don\’t think they need to spend the money on it after they find out how much it costs. Insurance companies are regulated by each state and must file the policy forms for approval, does the Department of insurance have any responsibility in approving forms (all of them) that exclude flood loss? The answer is NO because the departments know that flood is available from NFIP (the fed) to anyone that wants it, at a lower cost than any insurance company would offer it. AND IT IS PASTED ON THE FRONT OF THE HO POLICY. Should banks force people to buy flood insurance for all loans?, it is questionable now if it is legal to force people to buy a federally backed product in high risk zones just to get a loan. The fed is responsible for determining and setting the flood zones, this would allow for a rezoning effort that would put everyone in the high risk zones, I suppose that is one way to make it happen. If flood coverage comes from the fed and homeowners policies exclude it why are we not seeing the NFIP sued or brought into this action or asking them to retroactively offer coverage for the billions in losses. It is impossible for most agents in that area to even produce the signed rejection of coverage since the offices were wiped clean off the earth. If the FED sets the zones and the FED requires flood in high risk areas and the Fed sets the rate for flood and the FED backs the banks with FDIC then ultimately the FED will pay out either in flood claims or banks bailout when the people default on the loans that did not happen to be in high risk areas. A huge area of Mississippi that is coastal and that was flooded was NOT in the high risk zones. 1 bloock off the Gulf of Mexico was not high risk. If anything the FED is guilty of giving some people a false sense that they were not suseptible to flooding and the banks are left holding the bag which means that the fed will bail them out anyway.
Politicians can not be honest and tell the people what is right, they have an innate nature to do what protects their office and do whatever it takes to get re-elected or elected to the next office. If they would just come forth and say the HO policies have never included flood coverage and you had the chance to buy flood coverage or better yet \”you should have bought it\” then more people would not be stuck waiting and hoping for the jackpot to open up and spill money in their laps. Insurance companies will fold before they pay flood losses even if court ordered. A contract must be enforced or it is no good. Carriers will NOT pay these flood losses under ho polices, no matter what the court decides, and they should not.
Unfortunately, the only time that politicians ever hold the citizens accountable is when the group that should be held accountable is too small to create a politically significant voting block. Considering the latest statistics just out about how many people buy flood coverage, the number of ninnies is way too high to reckon with, politically.
Unfortunately, rather than take the measured approach, like the MS IC did, the MS AG went looking for the \”ninny vote\”. It’s a win-win for him. If he prevails, he is a hero (albeit on a short term basis; wait until HO coverage is only available from surplus lines carriers). If eventually he loses, he is still a hero, because at least he tried. In most political arenas, HERO = VOTES.
Meanwhile, people/developers will insist on building and re-building in flood prone areas; people/developers will not take into account the potential for flood (or artificially increasing the natural flood risk)when planning/designing home/building sites and infrastructure; and people/developers will again be caught with their pants down, seeking a government solution (be it litigation or handouts) to a problem of their own causation.
People who don\’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Unfortunately, the rest of us have to pay for it.
We\’re in trouble.
Read this from about 1810
A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the public treasure. From that moment on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most money from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world\’s great civilizations has been two hundred years. These nations have progressed through the following sequence: from bondage to spiritual faith, from spiritual faith to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependency, from dependency back to bondage.
Alexander Tyler
(regarding the fall of the Athenian Republic) circa 1810
I am certain that change arising out of the \”04\” and \”05\” storms will produce a government funded hurricane policy similar to the current flood policy. A homeowners will not cover damage of any sort from a hurricane, the hurricane coverage, flood or wind, will come from the \”Hurricane\” policy.
There is a \”hurricane policy\” in Texas. It covers Windstorm and Hail and the storm surge. The actual name is Texas Windstorm Insurance Association.
Proper coverage on the coast is regular property coverage – homeowners if it\’s an owner occ house – Windstorm Association policy and Fed Flood Insurance.
No reason to reinvent the wheel, it\’s been done.
consider this…
You got most of the endorsment right, except for the title, which is \”Hurricane DEDUCTIBLE Endorsement\”.
It\’s funny how you conveniently left that out.
Texas has the TWIA and some other stateshave something similar, but most coastal states do not.
Additionally, the \”04\” and \”05\” hurricanes have had a severe impact on national finances and on political careers, an impact that will spawn change.
In order to carry the national cost of the hurricanes predicted in this cycle there will be a national hurricane policy.
It seems that many folks and insurance people are missing an important point. There are many of us who are concerned, not about getting paid for water damage, but for WIND damage. State Farm, in particular, is not paying for proven wind damage, even with engineers reports and forensic weather reports as proof. They are saying that it does not matter if the tornadoes and high winds blew our homes away, even if it happened hours before the water came. The quote many of us are hearing from them is, \”We are not paying for wind damage (which is covered in our policies), because with this storm, if the wind didn\’t take your home, the water was going to come in a take it anyway!\” How ridiculous…have you seen the homes that are totally destroyed , trees down, everything in shreds, and just a short distance away, similar construction homes are still standing, altho flooded and unlivable? THAT IS BECAUSE TORNADOES AND FLASHES OF VERY HIGH WINDS made a path thru many, many areas and destroyed everything in its path. The standing houses were only hit by the water…they may be moved and gutted, but in the most part, many of them are still in identifiable as a house. The Mississippi Ins.Commission has stated in emails to us that they have told the Insurance Executives that they need to pay for wind damage, and the executives have agreed that they would. However, behind the backs of the Ins. Commission, the representatives of State Farm (in particular) are continuing to deny our wind coverage.The courts must interpret and apply the provisions of the State Farm policies BEFORE anyone goes to mediation. State Farm representatives must be knowledgeable and honest enough to advise the parties of the rulings of the court, with regard to the coverages of the policy. Mediation BEFORE the courts interpret the policies is a waste of time. So, for all of you who think that we are only out to get money from the insurance companies to cover water damages, which we realize is an excluded coverage in many cases…wise up.
Many of us had Hurricane policies…if that does not mean wind or wind and water…then why did they sell it to us in the first place. WE do NOT WANT ANYTHING THAT WE DID NOT PAY FOR…BUT WE DO INTEND TO FIGHT TO BE PAID FOR WHAT IS LEGALLY OURS.If you are not walking in our shoes, you may some day. Be careful how you criticize and judge.
How about a national kick-in-the-butt for any state or local government that doesn\’t pay attention to basics?
Not doing these sort of is like not buying a fire truck for your fire department.