Christine Ashburn, Citizens insurance VP, works with Candy Alexandra to review her insurance policy.
With Sen. Maria Sachs looking on, Bobby Jurovaty encourages members of the crowd to talk to their agents.
Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star
INSET BELOW: Alan Umstadter
By Dan Moffett
The organizers of an insurance workshop at Briny Breezes promised no miracle fixes for the coverage problems the state’s mobile-home owners are experiencing.
And true to their word, state Sen. Maria Sachs, D-Delray Beach, and the Citizens insurance officials and consumer advocates offered no cures.
But the 80 residents who attended the workshop left with plenty of sound advice and a good bit of satisfaction. It isn’t often that policyholders get the chance to sit across the table from high-ranking executives of the state-run insurer.
“I absolutely acknowledge the plight you’re in,” said Christine Ashburn, Citizens Property Insurance Corp. vice president. “I absolutely understand what’s going on here. I’m not promising a silver bullet, and I don’t have answers to all your problems, but I know what you’re going through.”
Coverage started changing for mobile-home owners in 2006 when the Legislature ordered Citizens to begin treating their trailers like cars. Under the change, Citizens is no longer required to pay replacement costs on losses for mobile and manufactured homes built before 1994. Instead, the law requires Citizens to pay only the depreciated cash value of the loss.
In communities such as Briny, the new law means that mobile-home owners are insured for only a fraction — often less than 30 percent — of what it will take to replace a trailer destroyed by a storm.
Briny resident Celene “Candy” Alexandra says she has an insurance policy for $13,750 on her mobile home and coverage for $3,400 of her personal belongings.
“That’s not even enough to pay for a shell of a new trailer if I had to rebuild,” Alexandra said. “And it’s not even enough to pay for a decent dinette set to replace the one I have. It’s not close to enough.” Alan Umstadter said he doesn’t even bother carrying property insurance on his Briny trailer.
“I really don’t think it amounts to anything,” he said, “so I don’t see a reason to have it. I’d like to have liability insurance but I can’t get it without the storm insurance.”
Paul Stewart, a Briny board member, noted that Palm Beach County has 162 mobile home parks, populated mostly by retirees who would have a hard time rebuilding or relocating under their current coverage.
“FEMA could be facing many thousands of homeless elderly folks in the event of a catastrophe,” he said.
Some advice from the Oct. 7 workshop for mobile-home owners:
• Get to know your insurance agent. “It’s critically important that you work with your agent and make sure the agent knows about any upgrades you made to your property,” Ashburn said.
• Consider paying for a home inspection. It could result in more coverage and a better deal.
• Don’t be intimidated. Briny Alderman Bobby Jurovaty said too often when people get bad news from Citizens, “panic is the easiest thing to do, or people accept anything they may say.” Jurovaty encourages residents to get on the phone and talk to an agent.
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