SARASOTA COUNTY, Fla. — Insurance experts are stressing the importance of preparing your financial and insurance documents, so you're ready when the next storm comes to the Tampa Bay area.
We are approaching the peak of hurricane season, and people are still recovering from the damage that Debby left.
Many people in Sarasota told us they were not prepared for the flooding and had to go back inside their flooded homes to find insurance information and financial documents.
“We always stress for every homeowner to own your risk," said Mark Friedlander with the Insurance Information Institute.
He said the time is now to start preparing your finances and documentation for the next storm.
“You want to have your insurance contact information, your insurance policy number, the claims filing process,” Friedlander said.
He said to make a copy of those numbers and save them where you can access them in the future.
He also suggests people take videos and photos of everything inside their homes and upload them to the cloud or another online photo storage site.
“Having a detailed home inventory, which outlines all the possessions you have in your home with video or photo, will make the process so much easier if you need to file a claim,” Friedlander said.
His last suggestion is that all Floridians should have flood insurance even if they are not in a flood zone.
“We can’t stress enough: every Florida homeowner is at risk of flooding no matter where you live,” Friedlander said.
“You know, it might just be time we take a look if HOAs are really even necessary.
Maybe we should just do away with homeowner associations as a whole.”
South Florida lawmaker Rep. Juan Carlos Porras (R-Miami) says it may be time to do away with homeowners associations altogether, as more Floridians speak out about rising fees, costly lawsuits, and even arrests tied to HOA disputes. He said this week that he is considering filing legislation in the next session that would abolish HOAs statewide.
