Sinkhole Insurance Price Increases for Parts of Florida

Collapse sinkholes are deep, steep sided holes in the ground that have the potential to cause serious damage to homes and are a major concern for homeowners in Florida. In fact, the counties of Pasco and Hernando are known as Sinkhole Alley.

Claims of sinkhole damage have increased tremendously in the past five years and are the main reason for the decline in insurance options for Florida homeowners. According to the office of Insurance Regulation, 25,000 claims at a cost of $1.4 billion were filed in the years from 2006 to 2010. The huge number of claims and settling costs have put private insurers in a hole and forced them to raise prices significantly while rewriting policies.

The initial nine months of 2010 brought with it 6,694 sinkhole claims. A vast majority of these claims were filed in the counties of Hernando, Pasco and Hillsborough. Broward and Miami-Dade counties represented 2.9% of all the claims filed, but what makes this strange is the fact that these two counties are not even considered to be in a sinkhole activity area.

Insurance companies have been crying fraud and claim that all the cosmetic damage claims filed are not caused by sinkholes. They want a more precise definition of what comprises sinkhole damage. According to one study, only about 27% of the policyholders who get money for sinkhole repair actually fixed the damage, while the remaining used it to pay off mortgages or spent it on luxuries. Lobbyists for insurance companies claim that fraud is driving prices up which have to be passed to the customers.

To help insurance companies and keep prices down, the State decided to act. The Senate Bill 408 will give insurers an option to allow offering sinkhole coverage with added premiums but will not make it mandatory, as it is currently. This step is being taken to keep private insurance companies from bailing out of Florida altogether. If private insurance companies leave Florida, the only option Florida homeowners will have to protect their homes against sinkhole coverage would be to use the state run Citizens Insurance. Additionally, lawmakers are thinking of recasting Citizens back to its original role; that of an insurer of the last option made for individuals who can’t get reasonably priced homeowners insurance in the private sector.

Regardless of the insurance company a homeowner is insured with, Helicon Foundation Repair makes its services available at the lowest prices possible and provides the most cost-effective eradication of the sinkhole problem. They make sure that their compaction grouting, chemical grouting, underpinning, and injection pier services are not cost prohibitive. Helicon Foundation Repair can help customers come up with strategies that reduce costs, yet secure the house of any cash-strapped clients. Helicon realizes that home owners do not factor sinkhole or foundation repair into their budgets, so they make it a point to work with a variety of different insurance providers, making it convenient for the home owner to get the protection their home needs quickly and efficiently.

Helicon’s teams work with a large variety of insurance companies around the state drilling, pumping and pinning homes to save them from extensive damage. A representative of the firm is always on site to make sure everything runs smoothly and to answer any questions.

Helicon Foundation Repair takes pride in the work they do. The materials used in repair work are of premier quality and the workers employed to carry out the repair jobs have integrity and honesty. Helicon understands the fear a homeowner must experience when having to deal with sinkholes, so they provide all the answers and experienced professionals to safeguard homes against sinkholes.