Florida Homeowners Insurance
The iconic beaches and waterfronts that make Florida such an appealing place to live also carry unique risks for homeowners. The Sunshine State is susceptible to hurricanes and floods, which can make finding appropriate and affordable home insurance challenging.
But Kin can help. We can cover homes all over Florida without compromising coverage.
To learn more about insurance for your specific city, check out these guides for:
To learn about Florida home insurance, hurricane deductibles, the cost of coverage, and ways to save on insurance, keep reading.
What Does Florida Home Insurance Cover?
Kin’s Florida home insurance policies offer the following types of protection:
- Replacement cost coverage for both the dwelling (Coverage A) and your belongings (Coverage C) when they are damaged or lost because of fire, non-hurricane wind or hail, theft, and vandalism. Replacement cost coverage can pay to repair or replace your property with brand-new items of a similar kind and quality.
- Other structures coverage (Coverage B) to safeguard your garage, fence, or sheds against loss or damage caused by fire, non-hurricane wind, break-ins, or vandalism.
- Loss of use coverage (Coverage D) to pay for additional living expenses if a covered claim makes your home uninhabitable during repairs.
- Personal liability coverage (Coverage E) to help pay your legal bills if you’re held responsible for another person’s bodily injuries or property damage.
- Medical payments coverage (Coverage F) to help pay for someone’s immediate medical bills if they are injured on your property.
- Hurricane coverage to help pay for hurricane-wind related losses to your home and belongings. This protection does not cover flood damage caused by storm surges – only flood insurance can do that. Your policy has a separate hurricane deductible for hurricane-wind claims.
Kin can also provide flood insurance, though this is separate from your home insurance policy. We’ll look at that in more detail, but first, let’s talk about hurricane coverage.
Florida Hurricane Deductibles Explained
Florida home insurance policies include two separate deductibles:
- A regular home insurance deductible. This applies when you make a claim for losses caused by fire, theft, vandalism, and non-hurricane wind damage.
- A hurricane deductible. This applies only once per hurricane season when you make a claim for losses caused by hurricane winds.
All Florida property insurance providers are required to offer coverage for wind damage caused during hurricanes. The law also requires insurers to offer hurricane deductible options of:
- $500
- 2 percent (this is Kin’s default option)
- 5 percent
- 10 percent
These are percentages of your home policy’s dwelling insurance (unless the percentage deductible is less than $500). So if you have $300,000 in dwelling coverage and a 2 percent hurricane deductible, you’d be responsible for paying the first $6,000 toward a hurricane-wind loss.
As with most insurance policies, the higher your deductible, the lower your monthly premiums.
Florida law states that hurricane deductible apply:
- From the moment a hurricane watch or warning is announced in the state, as declared by the National Hurricane Center.
- Until 72 hours following the end of the watch or warning.
- Anytime hurricane conditions exist in Florida.
How to Find Flood Insurance for Florida Homes
Your homeowners policy can cover certain types of water damage, such as damage caused by burst pipes or an overflowing sump pump. However, your standard homeowners insurance policy and your hurricane coverage don’t cover flood damage caused by storm surges. Only flood insurance can do that.
Kin can help most homeowners in Florida find affordable flood insurance to protect their homes. Homeowners that we're unable to cover may need to go through the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) for protection.
A Note about Florida Flood Zones
Most of Florida is considered a Special Flood Hazard Area (SFHA). These areas are close to the coasts and other major bodies of water. Homeowners in SFHAs are required to have flood insurance.
Flood insurance rates in SFHAs are determined using the base flood elevation (BFE), which predicts the elevation to which floodwater rises during a flood. Flood insurance rates decrease for each foot you’re above the BFE and increase for each foot you’re below.
While BFE is an important factor in determining flood insurance rates, insurers also consider other factors, such as home appliance value and location (e.g. inside or outside the home) and the number of stories.
How Much Does Florida Home Insurance Cost?
The median cost of Florida homeowners insurance is $1,172, according to our data. You can also check out the median home insurance costs for the following cities:
Keep in mind that your premium will vary depending on the location of your home, your home’s condition and construction, the amount of coverage you choose, and your background (such as your credit-based insurance score and claims history).
While you can’t control some of these factors, like the location of your home, you do have some options to reduce insurance costs.
Find Better Home Insurance Rates in Florida
To cut home insurance premium costs, consider the following:
- Choose a higher deductible. This will lower your premium, but you will pay more out of pocket when you need to make a claim. Never take on a deductible you can’t comfortably afford with little notice.
- Improve your credit score. This has a big impact on your rates. Simply paying your bills on time and not carrying a large balance on your credit cards can boost your score quickly.
- Take advantage of wind mitigation credits. Florida requires home insurance companies to offer insurance discounts for homes that are hurricane resistant. Reinforcing your roof and installing impact-resistant windows will significantly reduce your insurance bill.
Work with an Insurance Provider You Trust
You don’t want to trust your home to just any insurer. Some policies may seem like a good deal until you realize they leave your home underinsured. So how do you make sure you’re working with a quality home insurance provider? Look for the following indicators:
- Responsive customer service. Your insurance provider should be reachable via phone, online, or via social media. They should have knowledgeable, friendly customer service reps who can answer your questions and walk you through the claims process. Finally, your insurance company should have the physical resources available to help customers. Following Hurricane Irma, we sent drones to our customer's houses (with their permission, of course). This allowed us to get their claims started for them, in some cases before they'd returned home from their evacuation.
- Positive customer reviews. See what homeowners are saying on Consumer Affairs and the Better Business Bureau. The BBB, in particular, assigns ratings based on the agency’s Standard of Trust, a set of best practices that outline how businesses should treat their customers and the public. You can also check feedback on TrustPilot.
