I no longer live on the barrier island (Pensacola Beach) but have moved a little closer to the mainland, on the Gulf Breeze peninsula. But for my 22 years on the beach my late husband and I had Citizens for our windstorm coverage (had to have separate homeowners, and of course flood insurance). We were among the apparently very few who were pretty well taken care of by Citizens after Hurricane Ivan in 2004, so when we moved here we were satisfied to take a new policy from Citizens that offered both homeowners and wind. Easy as pie, and we always felt comfortable that Citizens was State-backed, no fly-by-night.
But why did they agree to take us a year ago, only to dump me now, I ask? They should've reneged back then, seems to me. Could've saved us both a lot of headaches and aggravation.
Last week I received a letter from Citizens (have always elected paper communications with insurers) giving me two options of new insurers: one with a premium at just under 20% more than what Citizens estimated my premium will be at renewal -- already high enough! -- and one substantially higher. I called my agent and was advised that the 'lower' offering company was a long-standing, stable insurer, even though I'd never heard of them. So I opted to go with the new guys, even though, from the information provided by Citizens, it's hard for me to tell whether their coverage is as complete - and there's at least one area where it clearly isn't. But Citizens got this law passed allowing them to dump policies this way and here I am now with an insurer strange to me, despite 23 years of being a loyal Citizens customer who actually stood up for them when many were bad-mouthing them. SUCKS.
Icing on the cake: Though my agent says they've never seen it happen, so it's a very long shot, it's possible that the new insurer won't actually bind the policy once they thoroughly review my home's qualifications. Actually, that would be fine with me; Citizens would just have to take me back, since the alternate option was significantly beyond 20% higher than the estimated Citizens renewal premium.
All in all, Florida property owners continue to get screwed six ways from Sunday -- at least one way or another -- by the insurance industry, hand in hand with the current State administration which enables them. |