Do You Offer Hurricane Insurance Policies?

Why Should I Have Hurricane Insurance? Whether you live on the sea-front or anywhere within the hurricane-prone Florida area, you need to consider taking a home insurance policy that is bundled together with hurricane insurance. Such an insurance cover will give you a peace of mind and ensure that you recover damages in any case that a hurricane destroys your […]

Why Should I Have Hurricane Insurance?

Whether you live on the sea-front or anywhere within the hurricane-prone Florida area, you need to consider taking a home insurance policy that is bundled together with hurricane insurance. Such an insurance cover will give you a peace of mind and ensure that you recover damages in any case that a hurricane destroys your property. As a matter of law, the Florida law expressly requires all insurers, such as the Neighbors Insurance Agency, to issue home insurance Florida policies that come together with hurricane windstorm coverage in these policies. This law must have been informed by the fact that hurricanes are unavoidable in sea-front areas such as Florida.

Despite the numerous benefits that such insurance policies offer to homeowners, it is crucial for you not to rush into taking out such a policy before first checking if it comes with “strings attached” in the name of hurricane deductibles.

So, What Are Deductibles And Why Should You Care?

A hurricane deductible can be said to be a protection cap meant to shield insurers from having to bear the whole cost of losses that result from hurricanes. Hurricanes can cause devastating damages to many people at any one time. When such happens, insurance companies receive tons of claims which can accumulate to billions of dollars. The concept of hurricane deductibles was coined in 1992 following the devastating effects of hurricane Andrew, which left insurers with a cumulative loss of $15.5 billion. According to this concept, the insured is expected to co-pay for damages resulting from a hurricane.

Some insurers use a percentage-based hurricane deductible system while some use dollar-amount deductibles. The former ranges between 2% to 5% and it is considered to be more expensive than dollar-based hurricane deductibles. So, before taking out a home insurance Florida, check to see the basis which the insurer uses to calculate the hurricane deductibles (if any). If your insurer does not charge any deductibles on your hurricane insurance cover, you will only be expected to pay the standard $500 of your insurance claim when you suffer from hurricane windstorm.

Did you know that your home insurance deductible will not trigger unless certain conditions are met?

Yes, the deductibles do not trigger automatically. Certain conditions must be fulfilled for the deductibles to take effect. These include:

1. A certain threshold of storminess must be crossed. Not every storm is a hurricane. For a storm to qualify to be a hurricane, it must have achieved a steady wind speed of 75 mph when it hit landfall.

2.The hurricane must be named and categorized. A storm is not a hurricane unless the National Weather Service has officially named it. The naming gives the windstorm an official hurricane status.

It is not all gloom; there is a silver lining:

Hurricane deductibles can prove to be beneficial to you as a homeowner when the windstorm lacks the storminess required to qualify it into a full-scale hurricane. This means that you will save money when the wind fails to blow.

Contact Us

When planning to take out a home insurance Florida residents, talk to Neighbors Insurance Agency. We are a trustworthy and dependable insurance company who will walk you through the fine print of your insurance policy. Talk to us today and let us discuss how you can protect your home from hurricane damage.