Posted On: February 17, 2005, 7:29 am CST

Posted By: not exactly

Buses, If you look at your current policy, you are actually insured by Service Insurance company, and it is adminstrated by West Point underwriters. Your agent is the one that sent you a letter regarding replacement coverage NOT your insurance company. Your current policy also has an animal liability exclusion, so this is nothing new. If your neighbors dog got onto your property and bite someone, you have NO liability unless you caused the dog to come to your property for some reason. Your neighbor would ultimatly be responsible. The Florida Fraud statement is on ALL insurance policies in Florida and has been for years. Basically it says if you lie about something in order to get the insurance, it IS a 3rd degree felony and you may go to jail. I have always wondered why we have to tell people that lying is wrong and punishable, I guess some people do it so often that they do not see it as wrong, and that is what we are trying to stop. IT IS FRAUD TO LIE ABOUT ANYTHING ON AN INSURANCE APPLICATION. You did not mention the name of the company that you were offered to replace your current policy so I can not comment on the coverages or exclusions, but it is probably not much if any different than what you have now, unless it is Citizens, which I doubt because the price difference is not enough to indicate Citizens.You also said that the replacement policy is not enough to cover your actual value. DO NOT UNDERINSURE OR YOU WILL BE SORRY. We had hundreds of people that lost a carport in the storms last year and because they did not properly insure, the $12,000 carport turned into a total loss and they had to turn in titles, this also put them in the CLUE database with a total loss, so they are not able to get replacement insurance from most companies. Even though it was not a structural loss it was a valuation loss and the penalties are high. companies do not want to insure a home that has sustained major damage and a total loss indicates major damage, even though it may not be. Basically what I perceive is that you are ticked at a non renewal notice and having to pay more for replacement coverage, because the other things you mention are already affecting you. Remember that the man responsible for some of the problems that property owners are going to face is Tom Gallagher the CFO of Florida, he is running for Governor and likes to portray that he is pro consumer, He is not. He had driven more companies away from Florida and done NOTHING to promote more competetion and draw more companies to want to write business in Florida. He has frozen rates for all insurance companies EXCEPT Citizens, which he created. Why is it that the highest priced insurer gets to raise it rates even higher, but no other companies are allowed to. This does not create a friendly atmosphere for doing business. I would suggest that things will get worse before they get better and your prices will go up even higher, because Citizens is forcing assessments against all other insurance companies to recoup their losses. Other companies are prohibited from raising rates to recoup losses, but Citizens get to raise rates and pass on the losses to consumers that are not even insured by them, YOU HAVE TO LOVE THAT. Remember Tom Gallagher did this to you.