If your home sits anywhere near the Gulf or Atlantic coast, wind is not one peril among many. It is the peril that determines what your policy costs, who will write it, and how much you actually recover after a storm.
In many coastal counties, standard homeowners policies exclude windstorm and hail outright. The named-peril wind coverage is then bought separately — through a state residual plan like TWIA in Texas or a wind-only policy from a specialty carrier. Homeowners routinely assume their HO-3 covers hurricane damage when the wind portion was stripped out at binding.
Hurricane and named-storm deductibles are almost always expressed as a percentage of Coverage A, not a flat dollar amount. On a home insured for $600,000, a 2% named-storm deductible is $12,000 out of pocket before the carrier pays anything. A 5% deductible is $30,000. Most people discover this after the storm.
Read what actually activates the higher deductible. A hurricane deductible typically requires a National Weather Service hurricane declaration. A named storm deductible triggers on any named system, including tropical storms. A generic wind deductible can apply to an ordinary thunderstorm. Three different words, three very different outcomes.
No homeowners policy covers flood. Storm surge is flood. Rising water is flood. Wind-driven rain entering through a storm-created opening is usually covered; the same water entering through a pre-existing gap is usually not. Flood coverage is a separate purchase through the NFIP or a private flood carrier, and it carries its own waiting period.
Roof age is the single largest factor in whether a coastal home is insurable at a reasonable price. Many carriers settle older roofs on actual cash value rather than replacement cost, or apply a roof payment schedule that pays a declining percentage as the roof ages. A fifteen-year-old roof can quietly convert a full-replacement policy into one that pays forty cents on the dollar.
Most people find out at claim time. Send us your declarations page and we will tell you before then — what triggers your deductible, what it works out to in dollars, and what is missing.
Send your policyAlmost every expensive surprise on a property policy traces back to one of these. Each guide is written once and kept current, because the mechanics do not change by ZIP code even when the pricing does.
Most people find out at claim time. Send us your declarations page and we will tell you before then — what triggers your deductible, what it would cost, and what is missing.
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