[PA. Girl]

Considering moving to Spring Hill and I keep on reading comments about sinkholes and lots of them in Spring Hill ... Can anyone please give me some detailed info on this ? Like do you HAVE to have sink hole insurance? How much does it cost ? If you get a sink hole does it totally devalue your property ? Is there anywhere I can check to see if a potential property has/had sinkholes ?
Also Is Car & Homeowners Insurance that high that it is forcing people to move ? An article in a Northern paper had a story with a guy claiming this ???
Or would this be more likely an Isolated incident ?
Sorry for so many questions but this is a big decision
Thanks so much for any answers!

[doggiebus]

I'm not fully knowledgable about this, as I don't live in a Sink Hole prone area. I do know people that live in Safety Harbour that had to have pilings put under their home because their home was on top of a sink hole. The insurance company payed, but they had to live in a house that was a mess for a long time. Here's a map from 2008 of all the sink holes Sinkholes of Hernando County, Florida , 2008

Found an article that might help answer a few of your questions. Citizens and other insurance companies are looking for ways to get more money out of Floridians each year, so that guy in the article you mentioned isn't probably an isolated case. North and Central Florida have for years been some of the cheapest places insurance wise to live in Florida. Insurers are now using sinkholes as a way to increase rates in North/Central Florida to the high Wind Insurance rates of Southeast Florida premiums it looks like.

Florida Citizens Seeks Hefty Premium Increases for Sinkhole Coverage | Safe Harbour Underwriters

Sinkholes become Florida's latest insurance disaster - Tampa Bay Times

[PA. Girl]

Thanks So much for your time and the great reply Doggiebus !

Wow I did not realize there were that many sinkholes and the claims were that bad .

"Residents in coastal areas of Pasco County, who currently pay an average of $1,270, would see premiums rise to $3,598, while other county residents who currently pay an average $1,475 would pay $4,440. Residents in coastal areas of Hernando County, who currently pay an average $1,356, would pay $5,734, and other county residents, who currently pay an average $1,084, would pay $6,192.
“These numbers highlight the significance of the sinkhole crisis in Florida,” said Citizens spokeswoman Christine Ashburn.
Last year alone, Citizens collected some $32 million in sinkhole premiums and paid $245 million."


That explains why the property values have declined so much... I thought ( with what the realtors suggested ) that it was just the bad economy causing it !!!

Also I did not know about all the fraudulent ? Claims pushing rates up for everyone else The links you posted have certainly opened my eyes . I currently pay about $600 a year Insurance premiums on a $290,000 house fully covered with replacement cost. My premiums there would be {conservatively} a minimum of 12 times that amount if I was covered for sink holes and normal coverage according to the Florida Citizens Seeks Hefty Premium Increases for Sinkhole Coverage | Safe Harbour Underwriters
article .

So basically I would have to pay monthly what I currently pay yearly
and live with the fear of a sinkhole ...

I guess I will be staying put... Thanks for giving me the straight facts I almost made the worst decision of my life!!!

[mortpes]

Florida has a severe water problem due to over population. This resulted in excessive pumping that is lowering the water tables. The sinks holes result from this lowering. Insurance is very expensive in Florida.

[Mike1306]

I am 5 miles from the coast in Hernando and my insurance is under $758 for $306,000 in coverage.
It would be $1516 total with comprehensive sinkhole coverage if I chose to get it but my insurance does have catastrophic sinkhole coverage which in most cases is all you need.
The higher coverage will be for older homes, those right on the coast and other higher risk homes..

[floridagirl777]

Originally Posted by PA. Girl

Considering moving to Spring Hill and I keep on reading comments about sinkholes and lots of them in Spring Hill ... Can anyone please give me some detailed info on this ? Like do you HAVE to have sink hole insurance? How much does it cost ? If you get a sink hole does it totally devalue your property ? Is there anywhere I can check to see if a potential property has/had sinkholes ?
Also Is Car & Homeowners Insurance that high that it is forcing people to move ? An article in a Northern paper had a story with a guy claiming this ???
Or would this be more likely an Isolated incident ?
Sorry for so many questions but this is a big decision
Thanks so much for any answers!

We have dealt with and are currently dealing with this issue right now. You do have to have catastrophic coverage for sinkholes, but a sinkhole rider for repairs is optional. For our home in Spring Hill, we pay about $800 per year for homeowner's insurance through Citizens. However, we decided to drop the optional sinkhole rider and have catastrophic coverage only. Because we've had our home repaired really well we do not feel we need more than catastrophic coverage. Before we dropped the rider, we were paying $1,400 annually.

We are now in the process of purchasing a home in another sinkhole prone area (Safety Harbor). When I asked about adding the optional sinkhole rider, our agent said Citizens now requires a $90 sinkhole activity inspection prior to making a decision about whether or not to provide the rider. She said 9 out of 10 homes fail the inspection and are not able to get the rider even if they were willing to pay for it. Needless to say, we are not going with the optional rider. Our insurance premium will still be high, however. We were quoted a rate of about $3000, and that's without the optional sinkhole rider! (The home we are purchasing in Safety Harbor has a much higher replacement cost than our Spring Hill house.) The premium would have been far higher had we obtained the rider.

This must be why our real estate agent up here in Spring Hill believes repaired sinkhole homes (like mine) will eventually become more desirable. I personally would MUCH rather live in a sinkhole repaired home with an engineer's report than one that is an unknown!

[PA. Girl]

Thanks for the differing info I was really confused as to how anyone would be living in the area with the outrageous premiums quoted in those articles?
I do have another question with this new info you have shared about your premiums... Are your insurance rates lower because you have a 10% cap annually on increases and the fact that you had a policy in place already or is this what I could expect for a new policy???

Floridagirl777 I hope this is not too personal of a question but I was wondering is your house in Safety Harbor almost 4x's the replacement cost as your house in Spring Hill or is this because it is a new policy ?

Mike can you give me an area or zip code where you are maybe I can look in that area :-)

Again Thanks sooo much for all your help and Information :-)