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Are You Overpaying For Your Property Insurance Coverage?

Dear

In 2005, the Florida Legislature passed Florida Statute 627.711 entitled "Notice of Premium Discounts for Hurricane Loss Mitigation". The statute requires that insurers notify personal residential property insurance policyholders, at the time of policy issuance or renewal, of the discounts available for certain types of construction which is demonstrated to reduce the amount of loss in a windstorm. Pursuant to Section 627.4025, "residential coverage" includes "homeowner's, mobile home owner's, dwelling, tenant's, condominium unit owner's, cooperative unit owner's and similiar policies and commercial lines residential coverage".

Despite the legal requirement that these discounts must be broadcast to policyholders, most people still don't know of their existence. These are not discounts for hurricane shutters and other window protection. These are discounts that may be available to individual owners and associations depending on, among other items, the type of Roof Deck Attachment (i.e. Plywood/OSB with certain specified minimum thickness; Tongue & Groove decking; reinforced concrete roof deck, etc.); Roof to Wall Attachment (i.e. clips, single wraps, double wraps, etc.); Roof Shape (i.e. hip, gable, flat, gambrel, mansard, etc.); and Wall Construction Type (i.e. wood frame, reinforced masonry, poured concrete, etc.).

Any qualified insured, as defined above, is entitled to take advantage of these statutorily mandated discounts. In order to obtain the discounts, the insured must submit a "Uniform Mitigation Verification Inspection Form" to their insurance company. Please click here for the Uniform Mitigation form and can also be found  in .pdf format at http://www.canfl.com/pdfs/OIR-B1-1802.pdf . You can also find this form on the Office of Insurance Regulation website.

The Mitigation form states that "Mitigation inspections must be performed by a qualified inspector".  However, the form does not define a qualified inspector and a call to some insurance agents has revealed that (a) they don't know what a Hurricane Mitigation form is and (b) they are not even aware that these type of discounts are being offered. I submitted the form (completed by a general contractor) for my private residence and have received almost $8,000 in premium discounts over the last two years.  Every insurance company has different standards but most will accept these forms if they are executed by a licensed general contractor, an architect or engineer. There is also a listing of inpsectors on the http://www.mysafefloridahome.com/InspectionFirmList.asp webpage for the State's hurricane inpsections for low-income properties. Conceivably, any of these inspectors could also sign the Hurricane Mitgation form for high-end properties as well. If you are interested in seeing if your property (either the association property or individual units) are eligible for these discounts based on various construction types, you must submit the Hurricane Mitigation form directly to your insurance company and then persistently follow up.

On a separate note, I am pleased to announce that the Community Advocacy Network will be spotlighting Senator Jeff Atwater (R-parts of Broward, and Palm Beach counties)for the month of August. Senator Atwater was very instrumental in passing the insurance reforms last Session which opened up the number of options available to common interest ownership communities; these reforms made pooled insurance and self-insurance funds more viable options for community associations than ever before.  Senator Atwater also sponsored Governor Bush's Task Force on Homeowners' Associations. The goal of that task force was to study the needs of those living in homeowners' associations. Senator Atwater has proven himself to be responsive to the needs of those living and serving in community associations. You can view Senator Atwater's full list of credentials by visiting the CAN website at http://www.canfl.com and clicking on the Legislator Spotlight tab. We are very pleased to be featuring him in our Spotlight.

If you have any questions or comments about the information contained in this alert, please don't hesitate to contact me.

Best Regards,
		
Donna D. Berger, Esq.
Executive Director of the Community Advocacy Network (CAN)
Telephone: 954.486.7774 
Facsimile:   954.486.7782
Web: www.canfl.com
Email: dberger@canfl.com

For more information, please contact Donna Berger at 954-486-7774 or via email at dberger@canfl.com