Homeowners insurance, with the storm parts explained first
A Florida homeowners policy is really three arguments: the roof, the wind, and the water that a wind policy does not cover. Everything else is standard. Here is how each of the three works before you buy.
What this touches
- Coverage A, the dwelling itself, which should be the cost to rebuild rather than what you paid or what Zillow says
- Coverage B, other structures: the fence, the shed, the detached garage
- Coverage C, contents, and the sub-limits inside it that surprise people (jewellery, cash, tools)
- Coverage D, loss of use, which pays for somewhere to live while the house is repaired
- Liability and medical payments, for what happens to other people on your property
- Windstorm, sometimes inside the policy and sometimes excluded and bought separately
The rules that decide whether you can be written at all
Two matter more than the rest. First, roof age: carriers here underwrite the roof harder than they underwrite you, and Florida law allows an insurer to require an inspection showing at least five remaining years of useful life rather than refusing outright on age alone once a roof passes 15 years. Second, flood: a homeowners policy does not cover rising water anywhere in the United States, and in this county that is not a technicality.
What moves the premium
- The wind mitigation inspection, form OIR-B1-1802, valid for 5 years. It is the single largest discount available on a Florida home and most people have never had one done.
- The hurricane deductible you choose, which is a percentage of Coverage A rather than a flat number.
- Roof covering, its age, and the way it is attached to the deck and to the walls.
- Opening protection: shutters or impact glass, and whether the protection is complete or partial.
- Distance to the coast, and inside Miami-Dade and Broward, the High Velocity Hurricane Zone rules that apply to the building itself.
The hurricane deductible is not the deductible
Your policy has two. An all-other-perils deductible, usually a flat amount, and a hurricane deductible that is a percentage of the dwelling limit and applies once per calendar year from the moment a hurricane watch is issued until 72 hours after the last warning ends. On a $400,000 home a 2% hurricane deductible is $8,000. We run the number with you before you pick, and the calculator on this site runs it for you now.
The Citizens question
Citizens is the state-backed insurer of last resort, and it is required to shed policies to the private market. If a private carrier makes an offer within 20% of your Citizens renewal premium, your Citizens eligibility ends. Whether that offer is good for you is a separate question from whether you are allowed to refuse it, and the two get confused constantly. There is a page and a calculator here for exactly this.
If you are in one of these
Questions people actually ask
Does my homeowners policy cover flood?
No. Not yours, not anybody's. Flood is a separate policy, through the NFIP or a private carrier, and it normally has a 30 day waiting period before it takes effect.
My roof is 18 years old. Am I uninsurable?
No, but your options narrow and your price moves. An inspection showing remaining useful life is usually what unlocks a carrier. Start the conversation before renewal, not after a non-renewal notice.
Is a wind mitigation inspection worth paying for?
Almost always. It typically costs less than a single month of premium and the credits it can unlock run for 5 years.
Work it out before anybody sells you anything
Four calculators that run in your browser, a page for every situation Florida puts people in, and the claims data for your own county. All of it free, and none of it behind a form. The form is for the other half of the job: when you have read enough and want a person on the phone.
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