I received a letter from my insurance, telling me an appraiser decided I need a new roof.
1200 sq ft home I can not afford a new roof. Senior citizan fixed income. Any suggestions? Approx. price for new roof? East Central Florida (Melbourne) Please help!!"edb" wrote
Contact your local department of elder affairs, whatever they call it there and ask if there are grants for a situation like this. Try checking with your local municipality to see if they have resources, once you explain your situation. Maybe get in touch with Love Inc., perhaps they can help you.
Good luck.
nancy
Nancy gave you some good advice.
Your choices are a new roof or be un-insured. If it looks bad enough that one company sent you this letter, no other company will take it.
If you get cancelled for this you will be SOL for a long time as these B****** share info in a database.
If you can't do the roof. CANCEL the policy before they do. That way you will not be shown in the database as a cancelled. The other info may or may not be there.
I'm not bitter. I am experienced.
Colbyt
If you are willing to disclose your income and some related information, a city department or local nonprofit organization may be able to help. I'm involved with a local Community Developmetn Corporation (CDC) that does repairs, a local Housing Trust that would work to put you in contact with a nonprofit that might be able to help, and a city commission that works to solve problems like yours. You cannot be the only person in town with the problem. It may take a number of phone calls, but that effort is worth it. T
That new roof could easily cost you $3000 to $6000 depending on the work needed.
Do you really need a new roof? It may be worth having someone else look at it and give an official opinion while you are looking for a new insurance company. I know Florida is a tough place to get homeowners right now so don't let them cancel you as your rates will go up substantially if they do and you are put into a risk pool.
its worse if the OP has a mortage, their original insurance cancelled the lender will put forced place insurance on only the structure at a cost of several times their old insurance. their mortage payment will go up at least hundreds of bucks a month, forced place is the high risk kinda policy. the insurance company likely concludes if your roof is bad so is other stuff and may require a complete home inspection. for sure any new company will demand that and likely refuse coverage for all sorts of minor issues.
this all happened to some friends, their roof was bad, insurance got cancelled, forced place added mortage payments went up near 400 bucks a month. they had fire which did 130K damage to structure alone, no living expenses, no coverage on belongings, they moved in with us for awhile. after begining gut, the fire damage allowed tons of rain to destroy whats remained of interior, they got tired of working on home, and we tired of one another i was pushing them to help me with demo. they moved into a one room apartment, and after over 2 years finally got back into their home.
all combined they would of been way ahead to just replace the roof. the forced place insurance cost way more than a new roof.
It's insured, right? Maybe the insurer should pay for it (less your deductible, of course). I'd be tempted to put in a claim.
Against what? Likely fire, probably hail and lightning, fair chance windstorm, some chance vehicle crashes, but I think unlikely ill effects of aging and "normal wear-and-tear".
If insurance should cover normal aging and wear-and-tear, then the premiums would increase to an extent sufficient to pay for roof replacements/repairs necessitated by aging and normal wear-and-tear, company overhead and wages/salaries/benifits including for supervisors (for processing and examining claims), and the company's usual profit margin. I seem to think that home maintenance will cost more rather than less if you add middlemen.
And don't let the next hurricane or tornado blow away your roof while your insurance company thinks it needs replacing or major work.
Homeowners have to pay one way or another for cost of roofs degrading over the years, climate control systems breaking down and often having to have major parts (like furnaces) replaced every few decades, water heaters fatally breaking down in 15 or whatever years, and the occaisional to rare plumbing leak/breakdown and the preferably rare electrical breakdown, and exterior paint hardly ever lasting even half of forever, and brick mortar often needing repointing after several or maybe a few decades, and what else...
- Don Klipstein ( snipped-for-privacy@misty.com)
There is also HUD (House and Urban Development) that offers low interest loans (1%) and grants to senior citizens and low income families for home improvement.
"willshak" wrote
I googled on Neighborhood Preservation in Florida and came up with this site:
nancy
Actually, it's "force placed" not "forced place", but otherwise, you are correct. You want to avoid force placed insurance at all costs.
locally there are lower priced roofers. they save time and money by juwst ripping the old roof off and tossing it to the ground. so the homeowner spreads tarps and picks up and disposes of debris. not fun but for the fiancially challenged its helpful.
We have friends who had some roof repairs done through a senior citizens non-profit. When a new leak developed, we asked our roofer to look at it, give a real low estimate so's the friend would not know real cost and we would pay it. The roofer did it gratis. If a decent roofer can be found, and I'm sure there are good ones who would give a price break, the OP might be able to work with the bank for financing it. An experienced roofer might also be able to give info for $ assistance.
1200 sq. ft. isn't much, but a lot of money when you don't have it :o) Our county also has yearly volunteer effort where they do minor repairs and clean-up. Our county has one central phone number to call for all social-services referrals...if OP gives general location, perhaps Google search will turn up something.
Also contact your states insurance commission or equivalent. In some or most states there is a program that provides basic homeowners insurance for people who are turned down by the regular carriers, and unlike auto insurance "pool" coverage, the rates are quite reasonable. I once took advantage of this type of program for an old house I was fixing, but not fast enough for my regular insurance carrier, and the rates were actually a fair amount less than the regular carrier. It's not a full blown policy, but it's sufficient to pay off the mortgage and cover basic related costs.
That is called "Citizens" in Florida and is usually about a third more to twice what a major charges. It is really a moot point though since ALL the major insurance companies sent out non-renewal notices to anyone within 10-15 miles of the coast this year. That is most of the people in Florida. With the exception of Orlando and Tallahassee most of us live near a coast. BTW I can't find an insurer who will only sell me basic "homeowner's" (fire, theft liability). They all want to bundle in the separate "windstorm" policy and that is more than the homeowner policy with a typical $5,000-10,000 deductible on a claim. Add flood and you are talking $4000-$5000 a year for $100,000 coverage and you still eat the first several thousand. You can see why it might make more sense to self insure if you have some money.
From the city web site.*
The City?s Homeowner Housing Rehabilitation Program is funded by the HOME Investment Partnership Program (HOME) and the State Housing Initiatives Partnership (SHIP) Program. Eligibility
Persons who wish to apply for assistance through the Homeowner Housing Rehabilitation Program must meet the following minimum criteria:
Own the property to be rehabilitated and maintain that property as their principal residence. Meet the low-income criteria established using the U.S. Department of H.U.D. Income Limits.
Make a minimum financial contribution equal to $1 for every $20 of assistance if your household income is low or $1 for every $40 of assistance if your household income is very low. Extremely low income households are exempt.
Assistance cannot cause the applicant to exceed the $75,000 lifetime City housing assistance cap.
Housing & Community Development
695 E. University Boulevard Melbourne, FL 32901-7121Phone: (321) 674-5734
-- Oren
"I don't have anything against work. I just figure, why deprive somebody who really loves it."
| BTW I can't find an insurer who will only sell me basic "homeowner's" | (fire, theft liability). They all want to bundle in the separate | "windstorm" policy and that is more than the homeowner policy with a | typical $5,000-10,000 deductible on a claim. Add flood and you are | talking $4000-$5000 a year for $100,000 coverage and you still eat the | first several thousand. You can see why it might make more sense to | self insure if you have some money.
I'd be happy with just liability coverage at a reasonable price, but the agent says nobody wants to do that either. I know it's *possible* to get "off market" liability only because I had it on some mostly vacant land with a barn for a while, but it was very expensive.
Dan Lanciani ddl@danlan.*com
Maybe Florida isn't such a good place to retire after all.
Oren-
You are a generous, kind, good and decent person. Very nice of you to do that researh.
Oren wrote:
really loves it."
Don't call me names, please!
Besides, it was just a click of "researh". The OP lives in a beautiful location.
-- Oren
"If things get any worse, I'll have to ask you to stop helping me."
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