(Photos) Please don't let Insurance Lapse / Gap in Closings or between Closings ~ During the Hurricane Season ~ or any season for that matter. I can speak from experience that sometimes your previous home closes & your new home is not quite ready & you think you have coverage...well "if" you cancel your previous policy, & you haven't taken "occupancy" of your new home & started the effective date of that policy then you are not insured, unless you took out "renter's insurance".
How did I learn this you might ask....well Hurricane Katrina, when she passed through South Florida (Fort Lauderdale to be exact) before she went on to New Orleans....oddly one day ago was the anniversary. (6 years ago)
http://www.usatoday.com/weather/stormcenter/2005-08-24-florida-storm_x.htm
http://www.news4jax.com/news/4904159/detail.html
I had 5 units in this storage facility as I had sold my home & was awaiting my new townhome to be completed. It was supposed to already be ready & there was almost an 8 week lag. In come the storms... Well I had in the mean time upon closing, thinking that I was moving to my new home, canceled my coverage on my previous home I no longer owned...
I did not take renters insurance as I already had set up coverage at the new location... I did not think that there would be no coverage between because I was due to move right away & did not take out renter's insurance. Lesson learned. I was LUCKY!! I only lost 1 of the 5 units ~ it was an expensive lesson, but could have been way, way worse. (see the articles linked above)
Then we went on to Wilma.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effects_of_Hurricane_Wilma_in_Florida
by the way with Wilma I had no electricity for almost 2 weeks, therefore no alarm to protect from theft...plus the storage was on the 2nd floor & the elevator operates with electricity.
I am sharing this because often others don't realize. This was a Cat1 for Katrina at the time before she went across to New Orleans as a Cat 5. My parents had replacement coverage with Andrew as they had a "Ripley's Believe It Or Not" waterfall in their kitchen everyday. We squeegeed water out of the home & sunken living room daily. Many people don't think about specifying "Replacement Coverage" for exact replacement.
You can not get any policy Homeowner's or Renters during a named storm (within so many miles - depends on underwriting...I am not qualified) I can only tell you that I at the moment can not get renter's insurance for my daughter that just moved to a new location.....
This was the satellite of Andrew when they thought it was going to Fort Lauderdale before it took a jog down to Miami
I am eying her ~ while she is eying us...
The bottom is Irene - I don't want her to hit "anyone" and I am insured this time, (but still not going to sleep much)
You see with Andrew It took them probably a decade to call it a CAT 5 an experience like no other my other blog.
So, just make sure that between transactions that insurance is considered for yourself, & those in the industry, that you may be 'suggest' in interacting with in transactions, so innocent or even overwhelmed people aren't left uninsured.
I hope this helps ~ sharing lessons learned the challenging way.
This unfortunately was the plywood off a neighbor's home somewhere nearby through a tree, ironically the tree was still standing...hard to say if fury will strike again. We just have to do all we can to prepare
Pam
p.s. don't forget the eye & hook in my previous blog.
