[BPete22]

Hello all, we are moving to TV in June and are currently shopping for homeowners insurance. Is a sinkhole endorsement a smart inclusion? Please provide your reasoning. Thank you and we look forward to meeting many of you.

[retiredguy123]

Yes, it is. All Florida policies will include, by law, "catastrophic ground collapse" coverage, that will cover sinkhole damage only if the house is damaged and declared uninhabitable and condemned by the local government. But, "sinkhole" coverage will cover damage caused by a sinkhole where there may be only minor damage to the house, but the house is not condemned.

[JGVillages]

Originally Posted by retiredguy123

Yes, it is. All Florida policies will include, by law, "catastrophic ground collapse" coverage, that will cover sinkhole damage only if the house is damaged and declared uninhabitable and condemned by the local government. But, "sinkhole" coverage will cover damage caused by a sinkhole where there may be only minor damage to the house, but the house is not condemned.

The additional coverage can be hard to find as most insurers will not offer it. Considerable $$$ damage can be done without the house being uninhabitable, so as with most insurance add ons it’s what you feel is necessary. The Villages Insurance has navigated me to and through numerous insurers as needed throughout the 18+ years here.

[rjm1cc]

If your home is destroyed you are covered. If a whole opens up in your yard and your home is livable you are only covered if you buy a supplemental policy.
I would avoid living close to ponds as the weight of the water and a slow leak could cause a sink hole.
I would skip the supplemental insurance as long as the area I was in did not have a history of sinkholes.

[retiredguy123]

Originally Posted by rjm1cc

If your home is destroyed you are covered. If a whole opens up in your yard and your home is livable you are only covered if you buy a supplemental policy.
I would avoid living close to ponds as the weight of the water and a slow leak could cause a sink hole.
I would skip the supplemental insurance as long as the area I was in did not have a history of sinkholes.

Note that sinkhole insurance will only cover damage to your house. It will not cover damage to your yard, driveway, sidewalk, pool, or anything else outside the perimeter of your house. So, if there is a 10 foot hole in your driveway, but your house foundation is not damaged, you are not covered by either sinkhole or catastrophic ground collapse insurance.

[Spartan86]

Originally Posted by retiredguy123

Note that sinkhole insurance will only cover damage to your house. It will not cover damage to your yard, driveway, sidewalk, pool, or anything else outside the perimeter of your house. So, if there is a 10 foot hole in your driveway, but your house foundation is not damaged, you are not covered by either sinkhole or catastrophic ground collapse insurance.

Well stated, true and I think not understood by many. DYODD, understand your coverage and deductible.

[jrref]

Originally Posted by retiredguy123

Note that sinkhole insurance will only cover damage to your house. It will not cover damage to your yard, driveway, sidewalk, pool, or anything else outside the perimeter of your house. So, if there is a 10 foot hole in your driveway, but your house foundation is not damaged, you are not covered by either sinkhole or catastrophic ground collapse insurance.

Correct! Many don't understand this.

And sinkhole coverage has a huge deductable. I believe it's a percentage of your dwelling coverage.

That said, unless you are in an area with recent occurances of sink holes, I would not waste my money. There was a case many years ago in Marion County where a home adjacent to a pond that was having sink hole problems was damaged to the point where it was condemed and the catastrophic ground collaplse covered that.

I wouldn't waste my money here in the Villages with flood insurance either unless you have a pond in your yard that can rise and flood your home.

[Southwest737]

No. Too costly. Most likely if your house is damaged by sinkhole it will be condemned and thus covered by insurance. That was the case with two houses in Calumet Grove. Also, these houses had drainage line that ran from street to retention pond between them. I would avoid buying houses situated next to drainage lines.

[westernrider75]

Originally Posted by BPete22

Hello all, we are moving to TV in June and are currently shopping for homeowners insurance. Is a sinkhole endorsement a smart inclusion? Please provide your reasoning. Thank you and we look forward to meeting many of you.

We added it to our policy last year after there were several issues in or near our area, it wasn’t that expensive and we sleep well at night.

[msilagy]

IS THIS TRUE -"Note that sinkhole insurance will only cover damage to your house. It will not cover damage to your yard, driveway, sidewalk, pool, or anything else outside the perimeter of your house. So, if there is a 10 foot hole in your driveway, but your house foundation is not damaged, you are not covered by either sinkhole or catastrophic ground collapse insurance." I was under the impression from an ins agent that catastrophic ground collapse covered your home if damaged and sinkhole covered your property such as a hole in the yard........PLEASE COMMENT

[Harvin]

I was talking to a customer at McDonalds at Magnolia plaza, he was in the business of sink hole remediation (basically they pump a cement slurry into the sink hole) - he said there are a lot of sink holes in TV area. State Farm provide sink hole insurance, it was reasonably priced in my opinion.

[roadrnnr]

what is the typical cost for this?

[Bob04090]

Originally Posted by retiredguy123

Note that sinkhole insurance will only cover damage to your house. It will not cover damage to your yard, driveway, sidewalk, pool, or anything else outside the perimeter of your house. So, if there is a 10 foot hole in your driveway, but your house foundation is not damaged, you are not covered by either sinkhole or catastrophic ground collapse insurance.

Also, there is a 10% deductible. So if your home is worth $400,000, there is a $40,000 deductible.

[Jameson]

Being new to FL and sinkholes we were able to add it by having the home inspected for an additional $199 charge that also included a roof inspection. I think it was called a 4 point inspection and the insurance company chose the inspector. We did not have to replace our 15 year old roof but I think we will have to revisit that again in another 5 years. After living here and checking into sinkhole history it seems there have been sinkholes caused more often by leaking water and sewer lines. That happens in every city. Natural sink holes also seem to be more likely near ponds and lakes. Just search the internet and you should find maps of sink holes around Florida and this area. I think we will be dropping the sink hole coverage for the reasons others have mentioned here. It ran us about $330 a year extra so that would be nice to remove from the bill. I'm sure the amount will vary by carrier and home value, etc.

[motherflippinpicker]

Originally Posted by BPete22

Hello all, we are moving to TV in June and are currently shopping for homeowners insurance. Is a sinkhole endorsement a smart inclusion? Please provide your reasoning. Thank you and we look forward to meeting many of you.

We are closing on the 11th and I had this same question. After a very long conversation with our agent, we chose to not have sinkhole coverage. I was informed as others have said, that it's unlikely even with coverage, that you will file a claim and it was 10% of the home value to file.