Sinkhole Insurance Issues

What’s going on with Sinkhole insurance these days?

I myself have witnessed my customers have Sinkhole insurance related issues.

One such case was in Broward county, an area Not prone to sinkholes.

When the Insurance carrier did a basic inspection on the newly insured home, they notice one series of small cracks, following the line of the CBS blocks under a window.

Because of their fear of a potential Sinkhole Claim, they would not insure this dwelling until the policy holder signed a waiver. Catastrophic Ground Cover Collapse was (and should be) still covered by the Sinkhole portion of that (and most) Florida Insurance policies.

The rub comes in when an over-zealous Public Adjuster, or Attorney may use the language of the policy to cover a much broader definition than what was perhaps originally intended.

I think the most among us know a sinkhole when we see one, being able to see the top of your roof without a ladder might just be a clue that there was ‘Catastrophic Ground Cover Collapse’ aka ‘A Sinkhole’ just ate my house!

Pushing the rates of all of our insurance premiums higher and higher still, are frivolous lawsuits and borderline fraudulent claims being made by some misguided souls among us.

Mike Thomas summed up what has been happening in some parts of Florida regarding Sinkhole claims on Homeowners Insurance in this article.

The new FL Legislation does have quite a few Insurance related issues – Including Sinkholes- on their agenda for the current sessions.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-mike-thomas-sinkholes-020111-20110131,0,5822172.column

Hopefully a well thought out solution to the current laws and policy language can come from our legislators.

Keith Royle
Florida Insurance Guy

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