Nearly every Florida home policy carries two deductibles. One applies to the ordinary things: a burst pipe, a kitchen fire, a tree through the window on a calm day. The other applies only to hurricanes, and it does not work the same way at all.
Why the percentage matters
The all-other-perils deductible is a flat sum, and most people know theirs. The hurricane deductible is a percentage of your dwelling coverage, which is not the same as what you paid for the house and not the same as what it would sell for. It is the figure your policy carries for rebuilding the structure.
That is the whole point of the arithmetic. Two per cent of a dwelling limit sounds small until you apply it to a real limit, and the answer is usually several times the deductible the same household is used to. It is worth doing that sum once, at renewal, while it is a number on a page rather than a number on an adjuster’s letter.
When it applies, and when it does not
The hurricane deductible is not triggered by bad weather. It is triggered by the conditions written into your policy, which generally begin when the National Hurricane Center names a storm and a watch or warning is issued for the area, and end a set period after the last watch or warning is lifted. Damage outside that window falls under the ordinary deductible.
One more distinction catches people every season. Wind is wind and water that came in from outside is flood, and flood is excluded from every standard Florida home policy regardless of what named it. Storm surge is flood. A roof opened by wind is not.
Choosing between the options
Carriers usually offer a choice of percentages. A higher one lowers the premium you pay every year and raises the amount you would have to find in the one year you claim. That is a real trade and there is no universally right answer to it, but there is a right way to make it: with both figures written down side by side, and with an honest view of what you could put your hands on within a fortnight of a storm.
We will show you the percentage options on your policy, what each does to the premium, and what each would cost you after a named storm. Ask us before renewal rather than after one.