MIAMI (AP) -
After a public workshop Monday morning, the state's largest property insurer says they need to raise premiums, specifically a 254 percent increase in sinkhole rates and 15.2 percent increase for homeowner policies.
But insurance counselors like Tom Cotton tell FOX 35 it's not a big deal.
"Sinkhole coverage to you and I is a house falling in a hole, but sinkhole coverage on an insurance policy, is minor settling and cracking," he said Monday.
He says huge sinkhole setbacks are covered under catastrophic ground collapse.
What the 254 percent hike is for - walls, driveways and ceiling damages, something that homeowners can opt out of - but if kept the higher cost will be minimal.
"A 200-percent increase on a $7 premium is not that much," he said.
He added a homeowner policy hike would help homeowners, even if they are not insured with Citizens Property Insurance Corporation.
"This affects you in a good way because its moves citizens one step closer to having an actuarially sound rate and it moves you and I one step further away from having to subsidize citizens in the event of a loss."
A board will vote next week on what rate increases it will request from the Office of Insurance Regulation.
