Orlando Vacation Home Insurance
Property and casualty insurance premiums for your vacation home will almost assuredly rise throughout the coming year for Orlando vacation homes and vacation home owners. Many Orlando Florida vacation home management companies had hoped that with the recent financial credit crisis and signs pointing towards overall price deflation, vacation home premiums would decline. The main reasons that Orlando vacation villa premiums will most likely rise in 2009:
1) Tremendous casualty losses all over the United States, but partly due to losses in the Midwest. For example, states like Arkansas and Missouri had more losses in 2008 than any on record.
2) It has been a very soft market for several years for premiums as insurance companies continued cutting prices to win market share. This was good for homeowners and investors, but profit margins on recently underwritten policies have now dried up. All insurers now recognize they must price accordingly based on risk demands and let the business go where it may. Insurers will fall back on reserves and tried and true business lines that they’ve developed in the past. All insurers have generally trimmed their business projections drastically.
Quality Management
However, the quality of your Orlando vacation home management and the actions you take as a prudent vacation home owner do matter. These actions for managing your vacation home insurance costs include:
1) Street appeal/appearance does matter to the insurer. Insurance companies have definitely been known to not renew if the appearance of the exterior and the interior is not up to par. Larger insurers do worry about this aspect, especially with the state of the local vacation home rental market. Small firms are hired in all areas that inspect insured properties regularly to decrease losses and take them off the books.
2) Updating your vacation home can be expensive and some owners may try to avoid, but losses do occur from defective features, lack of saftey items and other various factors on a frequent basis. These updates can save an owner significantly on premiums if they make the insurance agent aware when these improvements to the home are done for renewal considerations.
3) Community associations are helpful if they have legal “teeth” in terms of owner accountability. As they say, it’s the bad apple that ruins a whole bunch and causes others to lose interest in the state of their vacation home. Second home insurers take into account that home fires and other catastrophes do spread because of physical proximity and the likelihood that you are affected by someone else’s negligence.
As always, consult an insurance expert/professional who is licensed in the state of Florida and specifically familiar with Orlando vacation rentals and vacation home management in the Orlando area.
