Flood Insurance in Florida
A peril that is not covered under your homeowners insurance is flood, and on a national level flood is the number one occurrence, the number one thing that happens to peoples’ homes. Yet it is not covered on you homeowners policy and you need to realize that. You can’t get it on your homeowners policy, so you have to buy a flood policy. Now, when I say you “have to” it is not mandatory unless you have a mortgage. If you have a mortgage and you are in a flood zone that requires you to have flood coverage, and the mortgage company determines that, they will tell you that you have to get it.
When you are dealing with this, let me help you understand how flood insurance works. First of all, it’s a program developed by the federal government. There are flood maps all over the country, but since we are worried about Florida, in our area there is a determined flood zone. Who determines that? - The federal government. Insurance companies have access to those maps. The federal government determines the rates, the amount of money that you are charged for living in those designated areas. The federal government actually pays for the claim if you have a flood at your home, but the insurance companies are the ones that administer the whole thing.
Most of the time you can get a flood policy directly through the federal government. I don’t suggest that. It’s better to deal with an insurance company. The insurance company taps into the federal government for the whole program. The insurance companies are the administrators of this – they do the billing, and they often are the ones that send the adjustors out to settle the claim, but the money comes from the federal government. When you buy flood insurance, once again you have choices, and you need to know you can cover the structure of your house. You can do that only, and that’s what the mortgage company of course is concerned about, just the structure. You can also pick coverage for your contents, personal property, belongings.
You may have some type of detached structure on your property. If you want flood coverage on it, you have to pick another policy for that detached structure. You have to be aware of these things – choices. The cost of flood insurance varies, and it varies based on some common sense here, the closer you are to being threatened to be flooded, the more expensive it is. If you are on a lake, if you are right next to the ocean, if you are right by a creek - those kind of things, common sense, where a flood is more likely to happen, the more expensive your flood insurance will be - so, common sense. Anybody can have flood insurance, you need to know that. You may not be mandated by a mortgage company to have flood insurance; you may not have a mortgage, so there is no pressure for you to have flood insurance, but you can get it if you want it. If it concerns you, it is something that should be talked about thoroughly and understand how the coverage might actually work, as well as the cost of that. Common sense would tell you again, the closer you are to water, the more expensive it is going to be.
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