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Letter to the editor

Only half of mobile homes are insured

If owners are concerned about loss and injury from a storm's fury, their neighbors in conventional homes should be, too.

By PAUL SWIDER
Published July 22, 2007

Securing affordable property insurance is a problem for all Floridians, but mobile home dwellers have a tougher time.

Pinellas County is home to the state's largest number of old mobile homes, but owners of conventional homes are affected, too, because of the risk in a hurricane.

"If you're close to a mobile home park, in a hurricane your house could be destroyed by debris," said Earnest Williams, a State Farm agent and a St. Petersburg City Council member. "The debris is everywhere. It's a vulnerability, a big one."

Williams worked in the aftermath of Hurricane Charley in Charlotte County and Hurricane Andrew in Miami-Dade County.

He saw debris from destroyed mobile home parks damage other structures that were miles away. He said that legally those mobile home owners bore no liability for that damage, but he's not sure that will last.

"It may be a lawsuit waiting to happen," he said.

Regulators say mobile homes do not increase insurance rates for their neighbors, but there is disagreement about how they affect the market. For the residents of those homes, there is no confusion: Effective insurance is hard to find.

"There's a big preference to write insurance for post-1994 homes," said Tim Reinhold of the Institute for Business and Home Safety, the insurance industry's research arm for construction. Federal rules changed in 1994 because of the ravages of Andrew. "Many of the older homes have no insurance at all."

There are more than 100,000 mobile homes in Pinellas, Pasco and Hillsborough counties, but less than half have coverage, according to the state's Office of Insurance Regulation. Three years ago, more than 75,000 mobile homes were insured.

Statewide, of 800,000 mobile homes, the number covered dropped from more than half a million in 2004 to less than 400,000 last year.

The situation is most severe in Pinellas, where the vast majority of the 46,000 mobile homes were built before the rules required wind protection. Pinellas has 43,000 mobile homes built before 1994, when Andrew's effects factored into federal codes for mobiles. But 30,000 of those homes were built before 1976, before there were any federal regulations.

"You go to some neighborhoods and you don't even know they're there, but they're there," Williams said.

Insuring such homes is impractical because the likelihood of their destruction in a storm runs close to 100 percent. In Hurricane Andrew, south Miami-Dade County lost 97 percent of its mobile homes. In Charley, 90 percent of the mobiles destroyed were pre-1994; newer homes survived next to older ones that were demolished.

Insurance is available for mobile homes, but it's expensive. For the older ones, it's so out of scale with the value of the home that people only insure the contents, said Rocky Scott, spokesman for Citizens Insurance, the state-owned company that insures those unable to get coverage in the open market. Scott also said neighbors of mobile homes are probably paying more for their insurance than someone farther away.

"If you live next to a mobile home park, the chances for debris damage are higher," he said. "In a hurricane, once the debris starts flying, it creates a hazard to homes around them."

Regulators say insurers consider only the insured structure and what happens on its property, not the expectation of wind-borne debris.

"If you live near a mobile home park that has older homes, your first priority ought to be window protection," said Reinhold of the Institute for Business and Home Safety.

Generally, weather events that cause damage across boundaries are considered beyond anyone's control. But the law could allow action if one party was not careful in safeguarding his property.

"If wind blows debris and damages your house, you're covered," said Eric M. Goldberg, assistant general counsel with the American Insurance Association. "But if the company can determine the negligence of someone else was a factor, your carrier can file a subrogation action (sue the other carrier). We say it's an act of God, but to some extent, these things are preventable. Some homeowners are more responsible than others."

There are state programs to tie down mobile homes and perform other retrofits, but experts say they won't work on older homes because the structures will blow apart anyway. Researchers say they've visited mobile home parks and found tie-downs but no mobile home left that is connected to them.

"It's possible to make them more wind resistant, but it's not possible to make them as wind resistant as newer homes," said Jim Ayotte, executive director of the Florida Manufactured Home Association. "There's minor things you can do, but they won't be as strong."

Aside from financial concerns is danger to human beings, particularly those who live in mobile homes, which are often the first victims of their own neighbors.

"If you look at the statistics after the events, the death rate is much higher in mobile homes," said Betti Johnson, principal planner for the emergency management program with the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council. "It's deadly debris."

As insurance companies scrutinize liabilities, coverage and fault may become a common part of the conversation. That the Tampa Bay area has avoided these issues is a function of the 86-year span since the last major hurricane hit here. Old mobile homes are just part of the landscape, until the landscape starts to blow around.

100,000

number of mobile homes in Pinellas, Pasco and Hillsborough counties.

50%

have coverage, according to the state's Office of Insurance Regulation.

97%

of mobile homes lost in south Miami-Dade County during Hurricane Andrew.

[Last modified July 21, 2007, 23:54:05]