How does hurricane insurance deductibles work?

The hurricane deductible applies only to damage caused by storms classified as hurricanes by the National Weather Service or the U.S. UU. National Hurricane Center, Katrina Fallout · How the deductible works · When the deductible applies Marcus Reeves is a writer, editor and journalist whose writing on business and pop culture has appeared in several prominent publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Rolling Stone and the San Francisco Chronicle. He is an adjunct professor of writing at New York University.

If you have a home in a region that has a high risk of hurricanes, it's best to check your homeowner's insurance policy for the details of your deductible for hurricane-related damages. This relatively new addition to insurance policies is not a fixed dollar amount, but a percentage of the value of your home, and can significantly increase the financial burden you bear if your home is damaged by a hurricane. The so-called windstorm deductible applies to any other damage caused by the wind. Each insurance company determines its own trigger: the event that invokes the deductible for a hurricane or windstorm.

The companies developed a new method for calculating how much a homeowner must pay for storm-related insured damages before the insurance reimbursement goes into effect. This increased the amount the owner must pay and reduced the financial liability of the insurer and the reinsurer. A standard homeowners policy provides financial protection against disasters in the form of insurance for the home and its contents. The insurance deductible is the amount of money you must pay to cover a loss before your insurance company starts paying.

This is stated in the policy. Homeowner policies for properties in areas most likely to be affected by a hurricane may include hurricane and windstorm insurance deductibles as additional requirements in addition to the regular deductible. If your home is at risk, it's important that you have sufficient coverage to protect yourself in the event of a severe storm. Your standard homeowners policy may not cover all damage caused by a hurricane, but hurricane policies do provide this protection and often match your homeowners insurance coverage.

Whether or not you'll pay a deductible for a hurricane or windstorm depends on your insurance company's definition of a triggering event. The deductible will only apply in certain circumstances, which are described in your insurance contract. Hurricane insurance triggers vary between states and between insurers. That's why it's important to review the hurricane insurance details in your home insurance policy.

Make sure you have copies of the relevant documents in the emergency bag you have on hand in case you have to leave your house in a hurry. The amount of the hurricane insurance deductible is calculated as a percentage of the home's insured value, not as a dollar amount. The typical hurricane deductible ranges from 1% to 5% of the insured value of a home, although policies in some vulnerable coastal areas may have an even higher deductible. The Insurance Information Institute updates each state's laws on hurricane and windstorm deductibles here.

Insurance companies began applying deductibles to hurricane and windstorm insurance after suffering huge storm-related costs earlier in the decade. In most cases, these percentage-based deductibles increase the amount the landlord pays. Homeowners in high-risk hurricanes areas should review their insurance policies to find out how much they'll have to pay if a hurricane occurs. Hearing before the Financial Services Committee's Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee.

The percentage is calculated and the equivalent dollar amount appears on the policy statements page. This separate deductible applies for a calendar year (January 1 to December 3). No matter how many storms hit Florida and how many times your home is damaged, you are responsible for paying this deductible once during the calendar year. Once you've met your hurricane deductible, it no longer applies to any subsequent losses covered by windstorms after a hurricane alert or warning has been issued.

Instead, the All Other Perils (AOP) deductible will apply for each subsequent loss. If you haven't met the hurricane deductible and suffer a subsequent loss, the deductible will be the rest of the hurricane deductible or the AOP deductible, whichever is greater. It's important to note that all expenses are subject to this deductible, including those for emergency repairs. You must make emergency repairs and avoid further losses.

These expenses are included when the adjuster calculates whether you have met the deductible. When you hire a repair contractor to cover the roof or extract water after a hurricane, the contractor will usually ask you for payment because your bill is likely to be within the amount of the hurricane deductible. Most homeowner insurers offer property coverage for all hazards and liabilities, but exclude insurance. Maryland law allows a hurricane deductible to be applied to the entire state if there is a hurricane warning anywhere in the state.

However, over the past two decades, many home insurance companies have shifted more of the financial responsibility for damage caused by the hurricane to homeowners. After Hurricane Andrew in 1992, insurers realized that hurricane losses could be much higher than they had previously thought. It's essential to understand the trigger parameters of your home insurance policy to know when hurricane deductibles apply and when hurricane deductibles don't apply. That doesn't mean you have to pay a high, special hurricane deductible if your home is affected by more than one hurricane in a year.

In Florida, for example, you'll pay one hurricane deductible each year, as long as you're insured by the same company (or the same group of companies). The insurance department allows companies to apply an actuarially justified hurricane deductible based on the property's distance from the ocean. The District of Columbia Property Insurance Service (FAIR Plan) insures homeowners who haven't been able to find coverage elsewhere. Rhode Island insurers can apply a hurricane deductible to homeowner policies of no more than 5 percent of the insured value of the home.

Insurers generally cannot increase the designated deductible for storms or hurricanes on homeowners insurance policies that have been in effect for more than three years. After these disasters, reinsurers, the companies that support the cost of home insurance for major insurance companies, demanded that insurers find a way to reduce their claims costs.