Oh Robin,...I don't even want to remember...that far back! It was horrible... We had damage..and..our youngest daughter lost her home!... and then our oldest daughter died 2 months later...that was our Frances and Jeanne thing! Needless to say..we were in shock..and had no idea.what was going on! I can't help but wonder...if our insurance co. is being ran by humans... of course we weren't assertive...but geesh! and then......we had/have questionable neighbors...running up to our house telling us of their 50 &60 thousand dollar windfalls...... like I said.. I'd rather not remember! I am so worried..kinda..about this coming hurricane season...still haven't got our mess cleaned up yet.......and yes our insurance did more than double.... Peggy

Oh......I can tell you this....the one that got 63 thousand was insured by citizens..and had contractors in his family. Shame on me! Peggy

My sister received a little more money then I did. She had 3 shingles & a yard of gutter missing. I was in my house when a tornado ripped the roof off, of course everything got wet. You could see the drywall sagging, I was told to wash the dirt off & repaint. Also to pay cash to people to repair stuff so it would be cheaper. They paid me $5.43 each to remove 5 windows that blew out, & $69 to replace two. I guess I was suppose to leave the other three open.

Robin

Robin, I know...it was a free for all and chaos ! ..and then there were the ones that really got totaled....and everything else in between! I'm just trying to prepare myself for this years storms! I know there were people peeling shingles off of their roofs in the dead of night and running a water hose up into their attics....one of many stories... Shame on me,again! Peggy

I lucked out - didn't have any damage other than a dented gutter (we fixed that ourselves).

But Allstate dropped us. I never made a claim, and they dropped us.
You know what pisses me off, too? Why does Allstate have all these TV commercials, trying to get more business, when they don't keep the business they already have?!

Now I have Gulfstream, and yes, they've increased my policy.

Nicki, I have Allstate also. They actually laughed when I told them about the windows. We had no power for three weeks, all my clothes & stuff was wet & molded. They do not cover mold.

Peggy, there were people dragging once expensive furniture from the street, to their trailers also. I mean $2000 couches to 20 year old single wide trailers, in the poor section of town.

I know some one that lived on the beach, her two story house had two feet of water from Ivan. By the time she got home, two days after Ivan, she had power & the water was gone. She got paid for emergency housing from FEMA, while she was sleeping on her yacht in the backyard, while spending the days replacing stuff. Got paid a huge amount by her insurance for all new everything.

People wonder why insurance is so expensive, one reason is all the theives out there.

Robin

Well...I can tell you..Nation wide...wasn't very helpful! and citizens paid out big bucks and statefarm,too.....

Robin
Did you just say that Citizens is out of biz? I'm looking at new insurance for my new trailer in Chokoloskee and the agent said the company was Citizens. It has something to do with the State.....?

Also, in attempting to get rental assistance from FEMA after Wilma destroyed our old trailer, we were told we weren't eligible because we had a homeowner's policy. FEMA is supposed to help those who can't get insurance - not like the lady living on her yacht who was able to collect on her insurance. We finally convinced them that our policy excluded damage due to hurricane. Maybe they changed their rules since Ivan.

It is totally exasperating to have to pay huge premiums to make up for the fraud of the dishonest, freeloading fellow Americans. A new policy for our 48' single wide will be about $4000 a year, even though it is built like an armored truck to withstand catagory 3 hurricanes. Sadly, we maynot be able to afford to keep living here, like so many of our GW friends who have fled the tyranny.

I think if I were a young-er woman, I'd like to start my own insurance company for just my family and friends (I used to be in the insurance business) - that is how the concept of insurance got started in the first place. There'd be no washing and repainting drywall and replacing 2 out of 5 windows - no sir, not from MY company.

Okay, enough dreamin'. Back to the crappy real life........

Susie, yes they are out of business. My mother had Citizen, which had something to do with the state. They paid out a lot of money, then transferred the customers to some other insurance. My mom got a lot of money, that she pretty much blew. The house is back together now, but she still has a FEMA trailer in the front yard. I don't quite get it, FEMA would not help me at all, because I had Allstate.

The woman on the yacht got every penny she possibly could & she had insurance. I don't see how two feet of water on the bottom floor, justifies replacing everything upstairs also. Her house is worth at least 10 times more then mine, she only has to pay $9 for Citizens I have to pay $195. Her homeowners insurance is not quite double mine.

Robin

I just did a Google for Citizens Insurance, since I cannot get a regular H.O. policy since we are right on the water. I will HAVE to use Citizens.

Their website says they are now a combination of the old Florida JUA and the old Florida WindPool. I didn't see anything there about Homeowner's coverage, which is all I really want. Our previous company Omega doesn't write down here anymore.

Doggone it....

Citizen's Ins. is the state-run insurance co. of last resort that was created after Hurricane Andrew when the ins. cos. left the state. It was a law that their premiums be higher than any other company in order to lure the other ins. cos. back to the state. After the last 2 years, the ins. cos. have left again, so now Citizen's has the highest rates, even though there is no competition in many parts of the state.

In Pasco and Hernando counties, and quite a few others, Citizen's is the only co. that will insure us, not because of hurricane damage, but because of sinkholes. Sen. Mike Fasano and Rep. John Legg are introducing legislation to overhaul Citizen's and to try to stop this lunacy of ins. cos. only offering the products that make the most money, namely auto, health and life ins.

After a "town hall" type meeting held in Pasco, some of the citizens got together and rented buses and went to Tallahassee to try to get the governor and the other senators and reps to listen to them, but from what the paper said, they didn't give a damn.

So if your ins. co. drops you, you'll have to go to Citizens. They are located in Jacksonville and their # is 888-685-1555.

Hope this info helps.

Julie