Wednesday, November 10, 2010

11/9/2010 Tampa Bay On line Sinkhole Article

Yesterday Keith Morelli of Tampa Bay on-line published this article...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40095688/

In the article Mr. Morelli cites the Florida office of Insurance Regulation's report released today. The report quotes many disturbing facts about sinkhole claims in the region.

Some of the information in the report includes

1)  In 2006 There were 2360 sinkhole claims in Florida

2)  In 2009 there were 7244 sinkhole claims.

3) In 2010, up to 10,000 sinkhole claims are projected to be filed.

4) In the past four years, 1.4 Billion has been paid in sinkhole claims.

5) 72% of all claims filed have been in Pasco, Hernando, Hillsborough, and Pinellas Counties.

In other words, the amount of sinkhole claims have almost quadrupled  in just the last 4 years  and the claims are not going away.

What is going on?  Are Spring Hill and Hudson or for that matter, all of Pasco and Hernando Counties falling into the earth?

The short answer is  no. In my opinion the sinkhole craze has been fueled in a large part  by Public adjusters, Attorney's, and people trying to pay off their mortgages and/or profit off of their policies. Oftentimes people see cracked concrete as a financial opportunity where in the past cracking concrete was a fact of life in Florida.

THIS DOES NOT MEAN there are not legitimate sinkholes and that there is not an actual problem  going on that is unique to this area.

So what is the Problem?  This article can give you some insight if you are into technical reading.

http://water.usgs.gov/ogw/karst/kigconference/abt_karstfeatures.htm


  This area of Florida sits on a unique geological system known as "Karst".  As a former Cave diver I have been inside of this system down to several hundred feet deep and back inside of these underground limestone caverns back hundred's of feet from the cave entrances.  The Karst system of West Central Florida includes many features such as numerous Springs, Underwater Caves, and Porous limestone that extends through Hernando  down through Pasco County.  This system is under tremendous stress from Local water Pumping and from Regional water Pumping.   Much of the drinking water in Pinellas County is extracted from Wells in Pasco Country and Piped South.  As the population has exploded over the Karst, People have sunk wells for drinking and watered their grass. Compounding this is the fact that   whenever you turn on your tap water for any reason in Hernando or Pasco Counties the public water systems of the region are supplied by direct wells into the aquifer.  Agricultural pumping also plays a roll.  All of these things combined have stress the karst system in the area exponentially over the last 20 years.


Before the regions population explosion the aquifer was  full of pressurized water which held the fragile limestone formations together,except in drought conditions. Now with the stress on the aquifer the water level has dropped  and often the limestone is  not supported by water and subjected to compromise.  Sometimes this causes a downward dip of soil under your house and can cause cracking and other problems. In a worse case scenario and much more rarely , the limestone collapses into the void underneath it and a sinkhole forms on your property.

When the cracking is caused by an actual sinkhole or sinkhole related activity and you have sinkhole coverage, the insurance company has to respond.  If you have cracking and report it to your Insurance Company, they are required by law to eliminate the cause of loss by sinkhole and it costs them $5000 or more to send an engineer. Literally thousands of these claims pour in each year.  If the engineering company finds suspected Sinkhole activity, the Insurance Company pays for not only for fixing the damage but for "fixing" the sinkhole. These costs can and do  run into hundreds of thousands of dollars.

This environment has led to a flood of companies leaving the area and others to stop writing and cancel  their policyholders off the books, canceling entire agents' entire client lists. Some agents have been forced out of business and others have had to spend most of their time rewriting their clients and answering to angry policyholders. The remaining policyholders see huge rate increases or are forced to buy Insurance from Citizens Property and Casualty Company which has become the largest home Insurance Company in Florida.   No agent wants this to happen. No consumer wants this to happen, and Insurance Companies want to sell insurance, make a profit, and have happy customers.  It seems these days none of us are getting our way.

It indeed  is a volatile situation for all of us.  Unfortunately as long as we continue to over pump water, Attorneys see an opening for new clients, Public adjusters canvas areas for cracking concrete and encourage claims, and concrete continues to crack,  the Insurance Market will be poor in this region. The result is  we will pay more, and fewer and fewer private companies will keep their policyholders.  The next time your dishonest neighbor brags about his big check and the fact that he still has his house and nothing is really wrong with it, remind him that you and people with legitimate claims are paying his way.






Bauknight Insurance can help.  We have experts on staff who can replace your coverage when canceled, provide you with new policies when you buy a new home or refinance, provide you with sinkhole coverage or advise you of the savings and consequences of going with just "catastrophic sinkhole only" type coverage.  You can reach us at http://www.bauknightinsurance.com/ or call us at 352-686-0612 in Hernando, or 727-863-5641 in Pasco.

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