Flood Insurance Myths You Must Never Believe In

Over the years, the flood risk across Florida has risen to unprecedented levels. This means if you aren’t insured against floods yet, you are at great risk of incurring major financial damage. People across the U.S. lose hundreds of millions of dollars every year to flooding alone.

While flood insurance policies like Florida flood insurance Miami have been around for over 50 years now, people still don’t know everything about them. In fact, many people still believe that their homeowner’s insurance covers every kind of damage to their home. Such ill advice often doesn’t lead them anywhere.

If you live in Florida, you must know of these common myths and how they can cloud your judgment.

Myth 1: Floods Only Happen in Certain Areas

In contrast, the whole of Florida is today considered a flood-risk zone. The risk is certainly more in a few areas and less in others, but it’s always there. More than 25% of flood insurance claims are filed by people who live in those low-risk areas. So, you can never discount yourself from being safe from floods just because you live in a low-risk area.

Even if you have never witnessed a flood before, you should have flood insurance so that you can always breathe easily.

Myth 2: Your Homeowner’s Insurance Covers All Damages

A homeowner’s insurance policy covers a lot of things. However, flood damages are in no way a part of them. Flood insurance coverage benefits don’t even form a part of the add-on packages that are available along. You have to buy flood insurance separately, either from the federal NFIP, or from the leading private insurers serving the state.

Myth 3: Federal Disaster Assistance Can Fund Your Losses

It’s never wise to put your faith in federal disaster assistance. The coverage under it is limited and is made available only when the President declares the flooding event as a federal disaster. Only a handful of such events qualify under the program, so you have fewer chances of getting covered by them.

Myth 4: Only Homeowners Need Flood Insurance

Flood insurance is mandatory for everyone who lives in a flood zone. So, regardless of whether you own a property or are living in it on rent, you must have a flood insurance policy.

Your landlord’s policy will cover the damages to the house, but it wouldn’t cover the damages to your personal items. You will need a separate flood insurance policy to cover those losses.

Myth 5: Flood Insurance Isn’t Mandatory

Legally, yes. Flood insurance isn’t a mandatory policy to buy in Florida. However, it is one of the ways to sleep peacefully at night knowing that even floods cannot make you lose what you have built over the years. Entire Florida is a flood-risk zone, so there’s no getting away from it.

If you don’t buy flood insurance, and it floods in your area, you could incur damages running into several thousands of dollars.

Those buying a property on a mortgage have to mandatorily buy flood insurance first before they can avail of the loan benefit.

Since the flood risk rating 2.0 is already in effect, you can see your next flood insurance renewal or purchase cost more than ever. While the coverage remains the same, the higher premium is due to the higher risk posed by floods today. With the rising number of claims filed every year, it was always a matter of time before the premiums were revised.

If you still have been spared by the wrath of a flood, it’s time for you to act. You can still buy Florida flood insurance in Miami for a few hundred dollars and get much higher coverage for all your losses.

Call your nearest flood insurance agency to get a free quote today.