Insuring Your Mobile Home in Florida: What You Need to Know

Homeowners insurance can be a tricky topic even for the most experienced buyer, but once you learn the basics about what is covered with traditional homes and how the policies work, you can start to gain some traction in understanding your coverage, making claims, etc. However, for those who are purchasing a mobile home and wish to have insurance, a whole new set of issues can arise, making the process of formulating a policy even more difficult.

First, many insurance companies have stopped covering mobile homes altogether. This has made it very difficult for those who wish to live in a mobile home, since the lack of options leaves them with fewer rates to choose from, and means less competition and higher prices among the providers who do offer coverage. Carroll Marshall Insurance is proud to offer policies for owners of mobile homes in and around the Polk County area of Central Florida, but if you are outside of our area, we see and understand that the situation gets a little harder.

Once you have a provider though, you must still consider a few more details that make covering a mobile home different than policies offered for a traditional form of housing. Included things to consider are…

• What type of policy you are choosing. Many homeowners insurance providers use the sale value of the home as the basis for determining how much monetary coverage can be approved. Since mobile homes cost less up front, and lose their value much more quickly than other types of homes, this is important to consider as you decide on deductibles, monthly premiums, etc. If your policy is, in fact, based solely on the value of your home, you’ll need to decide if the premiums you’ll pay over time are worth the amount of coverage you’re approved for.
• Whether or not your mobile home is covered during transit. This is a big consideration. Unlike a home that’s built on-site, mobile homes are transported to your property. Because of this, they can go through a period of being uncovered entirely if they’re on the road in transit. Homeowners policies usually (but not always) deny coverage for any damages sustained during the trip from the factory or purchase lot to the final site. You may need additional coverage for this transition period.
• What types of damages are covered with a claim. Water damage for example is usually covered for something catastrophic (like a burst pipe) but only if the issue couldn’t have been prevented with maintenance. If you left your trailer vacant, didn’t prepare, and the pipes froze and caused a massive leak, you might end up holding the bill yourself since your lack of maintenance/forethought caused the damage. If a pipe burst however because of an issue in the piping itself, something due to outside causes, etc. then your policy will likely step in and offer assistance.