Two.25 That's where i got the info lol. The state run is the ONLY insuance available The very minimum is around 2400 with a 2500 first deduction. It will NOT cover furniture ,living expenses,out buildings ,landscapes nor total destruction .resulting from Hurricane . Which strikes me as the most necessary coverage lol To me the worst thing that could happen is total destruction,most likely caused by hurricane except for fire which the payout is good though there is a clause about fires caused by hurricanes. Have went through 4 since living here heaviest damage caused by flood which of course is not covered at all Carried state farm from buying the house in 79 and had one payout of around 1800 ,800 from flood. Cost 10,,000 to repair though that is not quite fair as the repairs are better than the original. The house was livable and most of repairs except roof was done by me. there was an allowance for housing and fixtures but not needed but seem exempt from new insurance. and obviously those would be the greatest expenses. So seems I would be paying 3 times as much for a third the coverage ?? lol Another complication is the "housing bubble" house has declined in value by around a third Would assume payout ,if available would be based on current value ?? Since the last hurricane Wilma I opted to drop the insurance and put the premiums into an account al least Currently the fund is at 12000 and could be expanded to 20. I figure no matter what happens I will still have the land which happens to be the most valuable part of the house. Anyway i thank you for the advice gary

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.

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.