Do You Need Sinkhole Insurance in Florida?

From 2005 to 2014, there have been 24,671 claims made for sinkhole damage. This means that, on average, there were nearly 17 claims made per day in the state of Florida alone.

Sinkholes can not only cause significant damage to property, but they’re also expensive to repair. Homeowners’ insurance typically doesn’t cover natural disasters like these because they’re so unpredictable. This is where sinkhole coverage comes into play.

You may not realize it, but sinkholes are a real threat to homeowners across the country. If you live anywhere near Florida, you might already be familiar with how big of a problem it is in the sunshine state. Do you need sinkhole insurance in Florida? This is a question that every Floridian has thought about.

The question of whether or not to get sinkhole insurance coverage has been hotly debated among residents of Florida and other parts of the country with high-risk factors for this type of disaster. Some people believe that they don’t need to get this insurance because their property doesn’t fall within the boundaries of an area at high risk for these natural occurrences. But the truth is, it can be extremely difficult to predict where sinkholes will appear and how big they’ll be when they do finally show themselves.

What are Sinkholes?

Sinkholes are natural disasters that can devastate your property and ruin your day. In the past decade, sinkhole coverage has become more popular as sinkhole events have increased in frequency. Sinkholes happen when water from rain, snowmelt, or irrigation wears away rocks under the land until it eventually collapses. The ground either sinks or heaves up, creating what is known as a sinkhole.

The most common type of sinkhole is called an edge collapse sinkhole which occurs when the groundwater corrodes rocks along the edges of streams and rivers causing them to break away into the streambed below, forming deep vertical shafts that lead to underground caves. When these cave openings get too big for their ceilings, they will collapse causing sinkholes on the surface.

While sinkholes are a natural phenomenon, sinkhole insurance is not always part of standard homeowners or renters’ insurance policies. Firstly, it’s only available in areas that experience sinkholes, and secondly, sinkhole insurance can be pretty costly. There’s a lot of other things to cover besides sinkholes including damages from fire, faulty construction, etc.

With sinkholes being so common, many insurance policies have provisions for this type of damage. That means that if your home suffers from a sinkhole, you will be able to get help with repair costs through your insurance company.