Florida Home Insurance and Tips To Help You Choose a Policy

The best way how to choose Florida home insurance would be first to pull out your current policy.  Review the limits you currently have so you can compare to what you are being quoted.  If you haven’t yet attained a homeowners insurance policy due to it being your first home, you will need to learn some aspects of the policy first.

You have 2 deductibles in your Florida home policy; the all other perils (AOP) which is usually $1,000 and a hurricane loss deductible (usually 2% of the Dwelling limit).  After the deductible is met, you have certain limits of coverage…dollar amounts the carrier will pay in the event of a loss.  They are labeled in letters.  Here is a sample:

COVERAGE LIMIT

A. Dwelling $175,500
B. Other Structures $3,510
C. Personal Property $87,750
D. Loss of Use $17,550
E. Personal Liability $300,000
F. Medical Payments to Others $5,000
All Other Perils Deductible $1,000

Florida Home Insurance Should Contain Replacement Cost

One important note is replacement cost.  You should attain a policy that gives you replacement cost for both your home (the dwelling) and personal property.  This eliminates any depreciation deductions.  Oftentimes, agents eager for the sale will strip off personal property replacement cost for contents.  This will make the premium lower, but in the event of a loss, you will only receive actual cash value for your contents.

So, in the above limit example, you see that there is $87,750 worth of insurance to cover contents.  Well, if you have a loss and your policy is under actual cash value, the adjuster will simply take into account depreciation for all your items.  So, you may wind up with a $40K settlement, meanwhile you have $87K worth of property leaving you out a good amount of money and no furniture.

The most important step in finding out how to choose Florida home insurance now that you understand the limits would be to work with an independent agent, like us, to shop multiple carriers for you.  You don’t want to work with an agent who only has 1 or 2 carriers, the market is big and we at RTC Insurance have access to over 15+ carriers to ensure you receive the most competitive rate.  We only work with A rated carriers so that you will be covered by a carrier with excellent claims paying ability.

Feel free to contact us at 352-200-2066 for a quote today.  We will answer all your Florida home insurance questions and bind the new coverage for you right over the phone.  We look forward to helping you save premium without giving up coverage.