I will look for that article, thanks arbisi. I appreciate it. As far as State Farm being a "great company" ... well, I can't share your opinion because as you know they are dropping homeowners left and right. Maybe they are great at making profits. As of Aug. 15, they decided to dump all homeowners within 5 miles of the coast. Previously they had dumped homeowners within 1 mile of the coast. Sorry, but that's just appalling. I will not give my business to State Farm or Allstate or Liberty Mutual or any company that decides to run and hide rather than work with the people of Florida. My mom immediately canceled her auto and umbrella policies with Liberty Mutual, picking up another company right away, and felt a bit better. Good luck with your situation. I honestly think that Citizens is better than some. I don't think Florida Peninsula is taking any more applicants and by 2008, Citizens is required to be "actuarily sound," which means rates should have some basis in actual risk, not just a number thrown out randomly, which is what happens a lot. Good luck!! Keep us posted.

Jane, I think you are smart to worry about unpermitted work. Be sure to pull the public records and make sure it matches any work that's ever been done on the house. This is an insurance issue, because your insurance company will probably not cover anything that wasn't permitted. It does not sound like a new roof - just new shingles. Hopefully they put in the wind mitigation straps when they put the new shingles on, but your roof inspector should be able to tell you. It will be important whatever the roof guy says about how much life it left in the roof structure. Another crappy insurance issue is sinkhole. I don't know if Manatee falls under the new sinkhole rules, but you need to check with your new insurance company to see if they require a sinkhole inspection. They are now required in Pinellas, where we've not had any problems that I know of (most sinkholes are in Polk and Citrus, far to the north). Sinkhole mitigation is the new nightmare now that most of the Chinese drywall has been fettered out - and don't forget that if any work was done in at 2005-2007 timeframe, then you need to be slightly concerned about that, too. Be sure to get the pool inspected. Leaks are a huge nightmare and I'm not really sure what they do to check for those, except they might pressure check the plumbing. If the pool has an autofiller, it can hide a problem like that. Also, if you will have any toddlers (grandkids?) around your house, please install the pool alarms that have undoubtedly been removed. We just had another tragedy just two days ago in the local area with a 9-mo old baby. I'm sorry that I can't help more, but I'm just not smart on Manatee county. If you will consider homes across the Skyway, I'd be happy to help! Waterfront is my specialty! You know, my DH commutes to Sarasota and it's a super-easy drive because we live just minutes from the Skyway...lots of salt water here! Sorry that your agent is too busy for you - that bums me out to hear that. At least you are smart on all this stuff or you wouldn't be on this forum. Keep asking questions, doubt everything until you're satisfied. If I think of anything else, I'll post again.

Boy that's an open ended question. Start with insuring the structure. You'll need basic info on the house, but also the square footage and the year built. Most companies seem to have a real bend on limited electric power (60 amp is bad) and fuses. Could be very different in your neck of the woods...I'm in CT. With the house info your agent will determine an estimated replacement number. Make sure you ask EVERY company how much additional replacement they offer. It can vary from nothing over the face amount up to an unlimited amount of coverage (ie: if the house were insured for 200K and it actually cost $750k to rebuild exact same house they would pay all $750K). Most companies in the last 5 years have limited replacment to somewhere between 120% and 150%. I'd go with a maximum amount I could find...especially in AK, where everything is expensive (from what I hear). You might pay a little more, but I think it's worth it. Replacement on Contents is also very important. Basically it says the insurance company will pay you the amount you spend to replace a lost item...not a depreciated amount. Example, with replacement your 20 year old fridge is lost in a fire. If you go buy the exact same fridge, the insurance pays you the full price. Without replacement, the insurer hands you $50 as that's about what a 20 year old fridge is worth. You'll pay a slight increase in premium for this, but you'd be NUTS not to get it!! Liability...buy as much as you can afford! Most policies come with $100,000 standard and you can add up to $500,000 for a modest increase (around $50/year). If you have your home and auto with the same company (which you should definitely do to maximize discounts) you could also get an umbrella policy. An umbrella is simply extra liability, usually in million dollar increments. There's always some deadbeat looking for a free ride, so you need to protect your biggest asset at all times. Most don't carry them, but I'm writing more and more every day. Deductibles...check either $500 or $1000. You'll save a substantial amount going from 500 to 1000. I don't find going over 1000 to make much sense. If you can save $200/yr from 500 to 1000, then in 2 1/2 years time you've saved the increase in deductible. If you save the same $200 going from 1000 to 2000, you've just doubled how long it will take you to "save back" the increased deductible. Check a couple of 2000 deductibles and you'll see what I'm saying. Flood Insurance...don't bother unless you're in a flood zone. Your bank will be the first to enlighten you if you are. Flood insurance isn't cheap. Most importantly, FEMA is the only horse in the barn when it comes to flood insurance. The reason I say that, is if you don't meet their definition of a flood then they don't pay. Translation, if your basement floods in a heavy rain, but your neighbors doesn't they don't pay. I believe their definition of flood has to do with an affected area having to be a certain number of houses or acreage. If not,then no flood. I've got to bail...sorry. I will check this again tomorrow to see if I've missed anything. In case you're wondering, I've been writing house insurance for almost 20 years.

When I asked my agent he said I shouldn't have said anything to the insurance company and that they would have been none the wiser. I think if you intentionally lie to your insurance company about a vacant house and you need to make a claim and they could show that you basically lied, then they may be able to deny the claim. But if the 'error' was done by your insurance agent (ie. he should have realized it was vacant and advised you that you needed to change your policy) and you needed to make a claim, they'd probably have to honour it. It was their employee's fault. Some agents may unintentionally do this or maybe even be willing to take whatever slap on the wrist might happen if their 'error' is noticed in order to keep their clients happy. So that's probably why he told you that you shouldn't have mentioned it. Now that you have, he can't claim that it was an oversight on his part so you'll have to change your policy. But that's just my opinion. That may not be the case and maybe your agent made a huge blunder that could have cost you if something had occurred. Insurance companies like to make people think that claims can be denied for the tiniest infractions and they will deny legitimate claims all the time because if even a fraction of the claimants give up and go away, that's money in their pocket. If you fight the denial then the worse case is that they have to pay it. Why would they jump to that position right away? They aren't your friend.