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Overlooked Insurance Credits Save Safety Harbor Residents Average Of $1,355 Per Year
Owners of a significant number of homes built within the last 20 years may be paying more than they should for homeowners insurance because they are not getting proper credit for the quality of their home construction.
Safety Harbor contractor Joe Faw has discovered that an inspection and certification by a qualified professional can mean specific savings that average more than a thousand dollars per home. The savings are the result of credits mandated by law, but even insurance agents often are not aware of the implications, Faw discovered.
For example, two families in Safety Harbor’s Old Harbor Place subdivision were astonished at how much they had been overpaying. Following an inspection, Greg and Diana Souliere saved $2,694 on their annual premium. Their neighbors, Javier and Chris Vicente, saved $1,212.
On average, residents are seeing a reduction of $1,355 per year, Faw said. And oddly enough, these dramatic savings weren’t uncovered by someone affiliated with the insurance industry. Faw, co-founder of Bay-to- Bay Properties, is a local general contractor.
The story begins with a phone call Faw placed to his parents after receiving his homeowner’s renewal notice this year. He called to compare notes on the policies for their two similarly built homes in Safety Harbor.
Faw was paying $1,400 per year for his 2007-built home, and he was shocked when he found out that his parents were paying $3,862 per year for comparable coverage on their 1996 home.
“I’m in construction and development, so I’m not an insurance guy by trade, but it didn’t take much to realize something was wrong when I saw the stark difference in annual premiums,” Faw said.
So he started doing some digging.
Faw contacted the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation, and after a few weeks of research, he discovered his parents weren’t getting the insurance savings credits their home deserved. And as it turned out, they were eligible for an instant reduction of $1,752 on their annual premium.
Convinced it had to be a fluke, he offered to do similar research for other neighbors in the Old Harbor Place development. All saw similar results. They were overpaying for their home insurance.
However, it wasn’t until he discussed these savings with an insurance agent that he knew he’d stumbled into something really interesting.
“By far, the biggest eye-opener for me was when I helped my own insurance agent save money on his own homeowner’s policy,” mentioned Faw. “He laughed when I told him that conservatively, I thought I might be able reduce his premium by at least $600. But, he wound up saving $1,314, which I thought was pretty incredible. So, I realized that if insurance agents don’t know these savings exist, how could anyone else?”
The most dramatic savings have occurred for residents with homes that were built during the ’80s, ’90s, and early 2000s, as later revisions to the Florida Building Code impacted these homes most significantly. The homes frequently are built to or above the standards required by new codes, but are not receiving credit because they were built before the new codes were in effect. Without a professional inspection and certification, homeowners are routinely denied credits.
Homeowners do not need to change insurance carriers to lock in the savings, but they are required to have an inspection from a qualified licensed professional such as a general contractor.
Now that his company has refined the insurance inspection process, it only takes Faw 4-5 days to uncover potential savings. Each time, he checks with the local municipalities to make sure every available insurance credit is uncovered.
“I couldn’t believe it when Joe showed us how we could save $2,694 per year on our insurance,” commented Greg Souliere. “This was such a great surprise.”
Faw charges a $250 fee for the insurance inspection process, and he has had to limit the number of new cases his company is processing at this time, because he didn’t want to interfere with his normal weekly construction workload.
“I’m not reinventing any wheels here. The credits I’m finding are mandated by the state of Florida. You can understand why insurance agencies may not want to inform clients about these savings, because it means less fees for them. But, it’s nice to have residents of Safety Harbor tell me this is the first good experience they’ve had with a contractor or builder.”
For more information on the insurance savings process, Faw can be reached at 727-483-9512 or through his website www.baytobayproperties.com .
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