Citizens Dropping Wind Coverage for Short-Term Rentals?

**lenzoe** · 01-05-2010, 09:59 PM

We just received a letter from our insurance agent stating that our wind policy with Citizens on our vacation rental can not be renewed if we rent our unit for shorter than a 1 week duration. Has anyone else heard of this? I couldn't find anything mentioning this on the Citizens web site. This is the first we have heard of it and it seems like it would affect an awful lot of rental property owners if it is true.

If it is true, does anyone have any strategies for dealing with this change?

**ata** · 01-07-2010, 05:48 AM

I am in the process of switching my citizens to rental from non rental. i shopped it hard and i could find very few companies that would take a short term rental. the ones that would were 2 times as expensive. many wanted security systems and gated communities with guards.i will not be renting less than 1 week anyway but this will be very tough if its a new policy. I just thought about this. this seems like a ploy to drop people. why does citizens care about renters? they only come into play if a storm hits. so why do they care if you rent? it seems citizens is trying to push people away

**bdc63** · 01-07-2010, 03:19 PM

Originally Posted by ata

I just thought about this. this seems like a ploy to drop people. why does citizens care about renters? they only come into play if a storm hits. so why do they care if you rent? it seems citizens is trying to push people away

I was thinking the same thing. Makes no sense for "wind" insurance.

**beachwood** · 01-13-2010, 07:29 PM

I switched toAAA years ago. They came to the rescue when State Farm and the other big boys pulled out.

**ray** · 01-13-2010, 08:45 PM

you use aaa insurance agency? whats the name of the insurance company they wrote you with?do you rent short term?

**Will B** · 01-14-2010, 10:53 AM

Citizens....

Yeah...they're a piece of work. They sent us a notice the first week of November telling us we needed to have our roof inspected before they would renew us (we expire in June 10). We had a guy inspect the roof before T'giving and mailed them the form that had to be used. Before they could even have gotten it they sent us a notice that we were being cancelled because we had not sent the form in time. This was all despite there being no date mentioned on the letter.

The inspector said 2-3 years left on the roof. Citizens came back and said that they would insure us, but we had to get a new roof before June, or else we we were cancelled because there was not enough time left on it. Over Christmas I had four roofers look at the house for an estimate.
The first guy never went on the roof, yet, managed to be able to tell me everything that
was wrong with it. He was out straight away...
The next two were from Providence Roofing and Bel-Mac roofing. Both of them asked why we were replacing the roof because there was nothing wrong with it. Had either of them inspected it they both would have said 10 years plus.

Now, we're between a rock (Citizens) and a hard place (the inspector). It became very apparent after the fact (unfortunately) that the inspector never walked the roof. He came when nobody was at the house and more than likely never climbed a ladder. There's no way to unring that bell, and now, we're stuck putting a new roof on a house that didn't really need one.

Citizens...yeah...right. They blow...

**sanddollar** · 02-20-2010, 08:41 PM

My husband and I are about to purchase "under contract" a house on 30A. We do not intend to rent, but we were considering Citizens Insurance for wind coverage. Can anyone tell me a good company to use. I read the previous comments, and it makes me a bit nervous. Thank you.