Condo Insurance Change July 1

Posted on June 24th, 2010

Radey Thomas Yon & Clark is an AV-rated firm located in Tallahassee, Florida. On their website, the firm hosts a blog that updates the public with relevant legal information, with a focus on insurance and employment issues. Recently there was an update posted by Travis Miller on the topic of Condo Insurance law and changes that will take place beginning July 1, 2010 – related mostly to Chapter Law 2010-174. We all recognize that South Florida is home to many condos in Boca Raton, Ft. Lauderdale, Plantation, West Palm Beach, Delray Beach, Aventura, Hallandale, Bal Harbour, Miami Beach, and the surrounding areas, this makes changes to condominium associations and unit owners’ policies particularly relevant to residents in our area.

Mr. Miller points out three essential areas of change: Loss Assessment Coverage, Adequate “Property” Insurance, Unit Owners’ Coverage.

Loss Assessment Coverage:

“…The statute continues existing law by requiring unit owners’ policies to provide at least $2000 in property loss assessment coverage.”

Adequate “Property” Insurance:

“…A reference to determining the “full insurable value” of condominium property every three years is being updated to require the “replacement cost” to be determined every three years.”

Unit Owners’ Coverage:

“…Under existing law, the association policy excludes personal property within the unit or limited common areas, and floor, wall, and ceiling coverings, electrical fixtures, appliances, water heaters, water filters, built-in cabinets and countertops, and window treatments including curtains, drapes, blinds, hardware and similar window treatment components.  The new law clarifies these items are the insurance responsibility of the unit owner to the extent they are within the boundaries of the unit and serve only the unit.”

Read Mr. Miller’s full blog post for a few more changes regarding unit owner’s coverage. There are several other areas that are vital for South Florida condo owners, in Broward and Dade,  to understand. Rami Boaziz, Public Adjuster, will guide you through this process and make sure you understand the new changes taking place.

Tags: Condo Insurance
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Weather Watch

Posted on June 15th, 2010

The summer is definitely here and the weather will be hot and rainy, what a surprise for Florida. Hurricanes are likely in the forecast this summer. In order to stay up to date with the weather forecast we recently added a current and forecast section in our sidebar. This was done upon popular demand. If there are any other helpful tips and news we can add, please let us know.

If we do enter the line of a Hurricane, we’ll up date you immediately and have all the tracking information you need.

Tags: Weather
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Governor Crist vetos Property Insurance Bill

Posted on June 3rd, 2010

The Florida real estate market is a hot topic that is always relevant in our communities. Recently, Governor Crist vetoed a property insurance reform bill, there were pros and cons to the bill. Ultimately, the bill was vetoed in the consumers’ best interest. There are always several sides to a claim, but the State should value the side of the residents in their communities. Insurance claims are complex and each requires specific time to evaluate the full extent of the damage.

Here’s a few paragraphs from a recent article on this matter – read the full article – Florida Property Insurance

William Stander, assistant vice president and regional manager for the Property Casualty Insurers of America (PCI), said in a statement that the group was “disappointed” by the veto of “common-sense solutions” to protect consumers and control costs.

“This legislation would have been a step toward bringing private marketplace solutions to Florida,” Stander said. “Without the bill, we continue to confront the problem of a huge and growing financial risk that Floridians face from the next storm.”

The bill included provisions to make it an unfair and deceptive trade practice for public adjusters to make misleading statements; set caps on public adjusters’ fees; created a website for consumers to shop and buy coverage; and set requirements for properties being repaired so future storms would not cause as much damage.

“While we are disappointed that these provisions did not become law, we recognize that many of us want the same thing: a healthy, stable and competitive insurance market that delivers economic security and peace of mind to consumers. We are all in this together,” Stander said.

Tags: Add new tag, proberty insurance bill
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