People from other states don\’t have a clue what\’s happened here in Florida. I bought a home here not quite 2 years ago. My initial property insurance was $1650/yr. Last year $2850/yr. Now, $3900/yr. The house I owned in Atlanta was worth roughly the same amount and my insurance there was about $450/yr.
I have never filed a home owners claim in my life. I feel like I\’m being penalized by the rate increases that have occurred here in Florida. In addition, my property taxes doubled. The assessment was much higher than the realtor said it would be adjusted to being the new owner of my current home. Now, I\’m paying nearly $700/month just for taxes and insurance.
I live an hour north of Tampa. Bought the house out here to try and provide a nice place to live for my family and now this…
Some people dont realize that the Florida state legislators sold us out. In the past, Florida could negotiate with insurance companies because they had access to there p&l data for the insurance entity regardless of where they wrote insurnace. For example, if a \”xyz\” insurance lost $1 billion in Florida in 1995 but made $40billion elsewhere, Florida has access to that data. Now, with the legislation passed under ins. commission Mike Gallagher, Florida no longer has access to the data for that insurance company from other states. Florida must deal with these entities as if they were Florida entities only. This is not true in other states where the underwriting is spread more evenly. I think our Florida state level legislators sold us out. Someone did. Was this a \”K\” Street project conducted by some highly paid lobbyists? Well nice job. Guess you achieved what you set out to do.
When I lived here in the 90\’s, we had no such problems.
Hopefully, our new governor Charlie Christ means what he says when he says he\’ll address the Florida insurance and county property tax issues.
Finally the politicians are understanding the insurance crisis in Fl. The windstorm rates are killing us. So many people, especially the elderly are being forced to sell and move out of the state because they cannot afford the insurance any longer. The deductibles are also high. And as an agent having to deal with Citizens is a nightmare. They are making us jump through even more hoops and want to cut out commissions and pay us a $100 per policy. The day that happens they should just become a direct writer and deal with what we have to deal with on a daily basis with insureds. Plus the people there are just plain stupid and don\’t have a clue about insurance.
I live in Tennessee and do not want to subsidize Florida insureds. Insurance premiums should be based on the related risk, not what someone can afford. If someone is in an area of high risk, their premiums should correspond to that risk. Linda, I agree that your commissions should not be cut. Agents provide a valuable service and should be compensated accordingly.
I would doubt that this proposed bill will go anywhere. Probably the reps just want to impress constituents.
Andrew, do you have any idea how many millions of your tax dollars are being used to rebuild Florida/Alabama/Mississippi/Louisiana? And will be again and again if we can\’t fix the insurance crisis in all those states. So, you are subsidizing those insureds anyway. Just as people in those areas will have to subsidize your state when the big earthquake hits, and the people in tornado alley, and…
Andrew, perhaps you know my aunt that moved to McMinnville TN after hurricane Ivan. She is in her 70\’s and lives on a fixed income and could no longer afford the insurance and taxes, so she upped and moved to TN where she can pay $350 a year for homeowners insurance and not worry about high deductibles and premiums. Pretty soon I may just be your neighbor too.
Kate, I don\’t want to get on that soapbox. Actually, I think Florida does an outstanding job of preparedness. Particularly as opposed to Louisiana, who just stands there with their hands out. I don\’t have a problem helping out in times of emergency. I just don\’t want to pay for rebuilding the property of someone who has not prudently prepared for potential, and in some cases probable, loss.
I do understand the situation. Two buddies and I have a condo in Fl and the association\’s insurance is nearly tripling this year and that is only an estimate. We are told that with surcharges, cost may increase further. Our individual unit coverage is doubling with deductible doubling. We are in a high risk area and I understand paying for that risk.
Linda, Come on up. Coincidentally, while I do not live in McMinnville, all my family is from that area. Beautiful area.
I have decided to build my home on the railroad tracks. I have three options.
1) Stay there and hope a train never hits my house.
2) Move my house off the tracks, but I really like the weather.
3) Let the train hit the house and have the government rebuild it.
let\’s get this right: \”Hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes and other natural disasters pose a threat to every corner of America,\” said Rep. Brown-Waite. \”Florida may be hit by hurricanes and California by earthquakes, but homeowners across the nation will face ever growing insurance premiums because of these huge disasters. The Brown-Waite Buchanan bill creates a federal catastrophic reinsurance fund, which state cat funds would contribute to, so that the federal taxpayers would no longer be forced to foot the bill for natural disasters.\”
If the fund is \’funded\’ by every state from their own fund, isn\’t that a national fund: ie premium, to be paid by everyone, including that guy in North Dakota…
sorry, but if you choose to live on a marsh on the edge of the ocean (or even 100\’s of miles inland), don\’t ask me to subsidize your wind damage premium. I won\’t ask you to subsidize my earthquake premium in the midwest (by the way, our windstorm rates are rising, too).
It was noble for these two govt officials from Florida to produce a bill that is for everyone, and not just Floridians. What a coincidence they came up with the grand idea after their state gets repeatedly hit with major storms…I wonder where they were when the Northridge earthquake hit?
Next, they\’ll come out with a bill to create a national fund to help habitual DUI offenders by subsidizing their premiums, after all it\’s not fair that they have to pay such higher rates just because they made a mistake and drove that car after drinking…perhaps a federal tax on bars…yeah, that\’s it.
sorry, I wan\’t nothing to do with rebuilding New Orleans with tax funds. What we need is someone with the kahunas to simply state \”if you have a risk, you better darn well insure for it, because if you don\’t, don\’t look for the feds to bail you out…and no, I didn\’t dynamite the levees; if I had, I would have done a much better job of leveling the place\”.
or…
we could Oprah-ize everything, and we all pay a flat amount for insurance and everyone shares all risks no matter how big…that would be fair…it\’s not fair that a large homeowner should pay so much, why, if an asteroid were to hit their house, it\’s big enough it would only destoy a small portion…yeah, I\’ll subsidize that, too. But I want an exemption on SUV\’s and anyone who shops at Wal-Mart.
The feds will now tax everybody in America for folks who choose to live in hurricane zones, in flood plains, along earthquake faults, in Tornado areas, and even for those who build in fire zones & on unstable ground.
I like the idea of tax free savings to mitigate future cat losses, who don\’t they give the tax free savings to individual property owners?
O that\’s right, individuals don\’t have lobbyists & individuals couldn\’t possibly be givin tax relief for any reason even future disasters.
We live in a free market society. The government should not be subsidizing insurance for people who choose to live in a disaster prone area. Last, the government has NEVER been more efficient then the private sector,in any industry, in the history of our country. Pay the freight or move! Stop asking for bailouts and for others to solve your problems!
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People from other states don\’t have a clue what\’s happened here in Florida. I bought a home here not quite 2 years ago. My initial property insurance was $1650/yr. Last year $2850/yr. Now, $3900/yr. The house I owned in Atlanta was worth roughly the same amount and my insurance there was about $450/yr.
I have never filed a home owners claim in my life. I feel like I\’m being penalized by the rate increases that have occurred here in Florida. In addition, my property taxes doubled. The assessment was much higher than the realtor said it would be adjusted to being the new owner of my current home. Now, I\’m paying nearly $700/month just for taxes and insurance.
I live an hour north of Tampa. Bought the house out here to try and provide a nice place to live for my family and now this…
Some people dont realize that the Florida state legislators sold us out. In the past, Florida could negotiate with insurance companies because they had access to there p&l data for the insurance entity regardless of where they wrote insurnace. For example, if a \”xyz\” insurance lost $1 billion in Florida in 1995 but made $40billion elsewhere, Florida has access to that data. Now, with the legislation passed under ins. commission Mike Gallagher, Florida no longer has access to the data for that insurance company from other states. Florida must deal with these entities as if they were Florida entities only. This is not true in other states where the underwriting is spread more evenly. I think our Florida state level legislators sold us out. Someone did. Was this a \”K\” Street project conducted by some highly paid lobbyists? Well nice job. Guess you achieved what you set out to do.
When I lived here in the 90\’s, we had no such problems.
Hopefully, our new governor Charlie Christ means what he says when he says he\’ll address the Florida insurance and county property tax issues.
Finally the politicians are understanding the insurance crisis in Fl. The windstorm rates are killing us. So many people, especially the elderly are being forced to sell and move out of the state because they cannot afford the insurance any longer. The deductibles are also high. And as an agent having to deal with Citizens is a nightmare. They are making us jump through even more hoops and want to cut out commissions and pay us a $100 per policy. The day that happens they should just become a direct writer and deal with what we have to deal with on a daily basis with insureds. Plus the people there are just plain stupid and don\’t have a clue about insurance.
I live in Tennessee and do not want to subsidize Florida insureds. Insurance premiums should be based on the related risk, not what someone can afford. If someone is in an area of high risk, their premiums should correspond to that risk. Linda, I agree that your commissions should not be cut. Agents provide a valuable service and should be compensated accordingly.
I would doubt that this proposed bill will go anywhere. Probably the reps just want to impress constituents.
Andrew, do you have any idea how many millions of your tax dollars are being used to rebuild Florida/Alabama/Mississippi/Louisiana? And will be again and again if we can\’t fix the insurance crisis in all those states. So, you are subsidizing those insureds anyway. Just as people in those areas will have to subsidize your state when the big earthquake hits, and the people in tornado alley, and…
Andrew, perhaps you know my aunt that moved to McMinnville TN after hurricane Ivan. She is in her 70\’s and lives on a fixed income and could no longer afford the insurance and taxes, so she upped and moved to TN where she can pay $350 a year for homeowners insurance and not worry about high deductibles and premiums. Pretty soon I may just be your neighbor too.
Kate, I don\’t want to get on that soapbox. Actually, I think Florida does an outstanding job of preparedness. Particularly as opposed to Louisiana, who just stands there with their hands out. I don\’t have a problem helping out in times of emergency. I just don\’t want to pay for rebuilding the property of someone who has not prudently prepared for potential, and in some cases probable, loss.
I do understand the situation. Two buddies and I have a condo in Fl and the association\’s insurance is nearly tripling this year and that is only an estimate. We are told that with surcharges, cost may increase further. Our individual unit coverage is doubling with deductible doubling. We are in a high risk area and I understand paying for that risk.
Linda, Come on up. Coincidentally, while I do not live in McMinnville, all my family is from that area. Beautiful area.
I have decided to build my home on the railroad tracks. I have three options.
1) Stay there and hope a train never hits my house.
2) Move my house off the tracks, but I really like the weather.
3) Let the train hit the house and have the government rebuild it.
I like choice three the best!!!
let\’s get this right: \”Hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes and other natural disasters pose a threat to every corner of America,\” said Rep. Brown-Waite. \”Florida may be hit by hurricanes and California by earthquakes, but homeowners across the nation will face ever growing insurance premiums because of these huge disasters. The Brown-Waite Buchanan bill creates a federal catastrophic reinsurance fund, which state cat funds would contribute to, so that the federal taxpayers would no longer be forced to foot the bill for natural disasters.\”
If the fund is \’funded\’ by every state from their own fund, isn\’t that a national fund: ie premium, to be paid by everyone, including that guy in North Dakota…
sorry, but if you choose to live on a marsh on the edge of the ocean (or even 100\’s of miles inland), don\’t ask me to subsidize your wind damage premium. I won\’t ask you to subsidize my earthquake premium in the midwest (by the way, our windstorm rates are rising, too).
It was noble for these two govt officials from Florida to produce a bill that is for everyone, and not just Floridians. What a coincidence they came up with the grand idea after their state gets repeatedly hit with major storms…I wonder where they were when the Northridge earthquake hit?
Next, they\’ll come out with a bill to create a national fund to help habitual DUI offenders by subsidizing their premiums, after all it\’s not fair that they have to pay such higher rates just because they made a mistake and drove that car after drinking…perhaps a federal tax on bars…yeah, that\’s it.
sorry, I wan\’t nothing to do with rebuilding New Orleans with tax funds. What we need is someone with the kahunas to simply state \”if you have a risk, you better darn well insure for it, because if you don\’t, don\’t look for the feds to bail you out…and no, I didn\’t dynamite the levees; if I had, I would have done a much better job of leveling the place\”.
or…
we could Oprah-ize everything, and we all pay a flat amount for insurance and everyone shares all risks no matter how big…that would be fair…it\’s not fair that a large homeowner should pay so much, why, if an asteroid were to hit their house, it\’s big enough it would only destoy a small portion…yeah, I\’ll subsidize that, too. But I want an exemption on SUV\’s and anyone who shops at Wal-Mart.
Sigh….
The feds will now tax everybody in America for folks who choose to live in hurricane zones, in flood plains, along earthquake faults, in Tornado areas, and even for those who build in fire zones & on unstable ground.
I like the idea of tax free savings to mitigate future cat losses, who don\’t they give the tax free savings to individual property owners?
O that\’s right, individuals don\’t have lobbyists & individuals couldn\’t possibly be givin tax relief for any reason even future disasters.
We live in a free market society. The government should not be subsidizing insurance for people who choose to live in a disaster prone area. Last, the government has NEVER been more efficient then the private sector,in any industry, in the history of our country. Pay the freight or move! Stop asking for bailouts and for others to solve your problems!