With so many problems Florida homeowners have regarding their homes and both hurricanes and flooding, it begs the question as to whether more of them should have home warranty policies.
In general, home warranty policies will cover basic maintenance items for a person’s home if something should happen to go wrong. Things such as broken windows, broken pipes, water heaters and the like would be covered under many of these types of policies. And at a rate of usually less than $500 a year, it could seem like it would be a pretty good deal.
In general there are two types of home warranties homeowners can get. One comes with the purchase of a new home, as most contractors will give a full one year warranty if there ends up being any structural damage. Some home builders will even take care of damage done to new homes via natural disasters such as hurricanes. And homeowners often have the option of purchasing an extended plan for up to 10 years, although after year 5 certain things won’t be covered anymore.
The second is purchasing a policy through an independent home warranty company. You pay a yearly amount, and some people claim that it’s worth it when things go wrong and you need to file a claim.
The problems with independent companies are many. One, there aren’t a lot of home warranty companies in Florida to begin with. Two, almost every home warranty company in the state has numerous complaints, with the top two being that it’s hard to reach them when you want to file or follow up on the report of a claim, and two, people get denied often for reasons that don’t make a lot of sense to them.
Three, none of the warranty companies will cover any damage associated with hurricanes. If that’s the reason you were hoping to hook up with one of these companies you’re out of luck. Sure, hurricanes aren’t an every day occurrence, but neither are most of the other problems you might find yourself paying out of pocket for.
If you still want to check into it for yourself, I’d recommend you start with the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation, which could help guide you to someone who they might believe is at least somewhat reputable. At the very least, they can tell you who is and isn’t licensed, and they’ll act on those who aren’t, as they did back in February.
See also:
State Farm drops Florida Homeowners
Planning for a Florida Storm
Mitch writes on real estate, finance, and many other things.