'We do not have insurance. We have an insurance bill': Condos hit with 563% rate increase

[JPK]

11. Housing insurance in Florida, we don't have insurance, we DON'T have a bill.

I own my house outright so I don't have to pay the outrageous prices insurance companies are demanding here. Our insurance for our 85 year old house, fifteen miles from the beach, went from $2400/year to $5500/year. And that was with an insurer of last resort. On top of that we would have been required to buy flood insurance in order to be accepted. Our 1/5 of an acre lot has a small corner of our back yard that is in Zone B of the local flood plain. (there's A, B and C). We decided to just drop it. We are retired and on fixed income so if our house became unlivable for some weather related damage we would just sell the dirt and move to an apartment. We are fortunate to own our house and can do that. I feel bad for those in SW Florida and the Panhandle whose properties were destroyed or majorly damaged. They still own on their property and must have insurance for their mortgage. Now they are victimized again by investors that buy up properties cheap. The insurance companies stiff them, Under reimburse them, then they can't pay the rate increases and can't afford the repairs. Under Florida insurance regulations, you as the property owner must prevent any further damage to the property while you wait, sometimes years to rebuild. I can't conceive of how much a new home owner has to pay now with a new house costing $350k and up, add property taxes and then housing and flood insurance to their monthly cost of owning a home here. The Florida politicians are in the pocket of the home builder associations as well as the property investors here.

I might add, it also is automobile insurance as well. At least 1/4 of the cars on our highways here have no insurance.