Florida Home And Car Insurance
Those Florida residents wanting to carry both their Florida home and car insurance through the same company hoping for a multiple policy discount may be disappointed to find out that they can’t do it, mostly because homeowners insurance is difficult to come by in FL.
Florida Home And Car
Insurance:
Homeowners Coverage
In 2005 there are only about 10 insurance companies that offered both Florida home and car insurance. Hurricane Katrina has had a huge effect on insurance policies, especially homeowners insurance.
Florida is currently one of the most expensive states for insurance mostly because of the 2004-2005 hurricane season. In 2001 the number of companies offering homeowners insurance started to decline, then Katrina hit, causing $36 billion in claim losses, causing more companies to get out of the Florida homeowners insurance business.
Other companies severely cut their customer base and would not allow people to renew claims. For example, Atlantic Preferred Insurance Company decided it would insure no more than 140,000 homes.
The 2004-2005 hurricane season not only had an effect on the insurance companies, who are still working on claims from Katrina, but an effect on policy holders living in Florida. The costs of building materials and labor have gone up making it more expensive to rebuild homes causing premiums to skyrocket. There are many groups protesting the current high homeowner’s insurance rates. Since 2005 a number of changes have been made to Florida’s homeowners insurance laws.
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Insurance companies are prohibited from non-renewal of policies until 90 days after a home damaged or destroyed by a hurricane has been completed.
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The claims process has to be started within 14 days.
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Insurance companies are required to pay full replacement cost on home contents and repairs up front and not the actual cash value.
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Public hearings are required before premiums can be raised over 15%.
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Insurance companies must now disclose all discounts that are available to the policy holder as well as detail how much the deductible (currently it is 2% - 5% of the total policy) could end up costing the policy holder. If your home has $100,000 worth of coverage on it, your deductible will be between $2000 and $5000.
Standard Florida
Hurricane Coverage
It is important to know the standard coverage in the event of a hurricane because many insurance companies, especially in the event of a storm as devastating as Katrina, will try to cut losses anyway they can, even if it is something that is covered or just flat out denying the claim all together.
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Debris removal.
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Wind damage to your home and any attached structures such as a patio, garage or carport.
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The actual cash value of your possessions as well as living expenses if you can not live in your home.
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Emergency repairs to prevent further damages.
Florida Home And Car
Insurance: Auto Policies
Minimum state requirements for Florida car insurance require that any vehicle that has been in the state for 90 days or more, even if they are non-consecutive, have liability coverage of:
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$10,000 for bodily injury or death for one person.
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$20,000 for two or more people.
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$10,000 in property damage for anyone involved in an accident for which they are at fault, if your drivers license has been suspended or revoked for too many points or being a habitual traffic offender and any DUI citation.
Minimum no-fault insurance, which pays for injury or property damage to the policy holder, up to the policy limit regardless of who is at fault, is required of $10,000 for personal injury protection and $10,000 for property damage liability. Failure to carry minimum insurance can result in fines, suspension of license and registration.
In light of the 2004-2005 hurricane season, you will want to double check any policy to make sure that you have comprehensive insurance that will cover wind damage as well as flooding and that all items in your care are covered.
Companies That Provide Both
Florida Home And Auto Insurance
Here are some of the best companies that provide both auto insurance and homeowners insurance in Florida. Before deciding on one of these companies you should double check this information to make sure that it is still up to date since the insurance market changes quickly in Florida.
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Cypress Insurance Group
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Zellner Insurance
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State Farm
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Nationwide
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Allstate
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Geico
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Florida Farm Bureau Insurance Companies
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Fidelity National Property and Casualty Insurance Company
Compare Florida Home And
Car Insurance Companies Now
The tool that we have provided at the top of the page will make it easy to compare Florida home and auto insurance providers side by side. Start shopping for Florida home and car insurance quotes now!