Florida Insurance Companies cracking down on Chinese Drywall October 15, 2009

Yesterday, I wrote a post on Chinese drywall victims losing home insurance coverage. The largest home insurance company in Florida, Citizens Property Insurance Corp., is refusing to renew some policies if the homeowner does not get their Chinese drywall taken care of. While it is bad enough that the largest insurer in the state is doing this, now another one is cracking down.

The Miami Herald has a great story on this: 2nd Florida insurer drops policy over Chinese drywall. Universal North America is the second insurance company in the state to begin to let customers go who are living in homes with Chinese drywall. These companies feel that Chinese drywall is a fire and water damage hazard. In turn, they don’t want to have anything to do with them.

Universal currently provides home insurance to roughly 105,000 Floridians. It will be interesting to see how many policies they cut due to Chinese drywall related issues.

ABC News reported to avoid the risk of further damages caused by Chinese drywall some insurance companies, such as Universal Insurance and Citizens Property Insurance, have chosen to cancel policies. Citizens Property Insurance says, “If there is damage in residence we will send out a nonrenewal notice six months prior to the end of the policy. This is no different thatn if there was a hole in the roof. We would require repair be completed before we renewed the policy” in a statement to Good Morning America.

Micheal Barry, with the Insurance Information Institute, says “In everyone’s home policy it says the insurer does not have to pay in the event of a faulty construction or materials or poor workmanship.”

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