So, you’re a bit of a procrastinator. You may have been putting off getting your home insurance. You’ve been meaning to get around to it…but, well…it just didn’t get done. And now there’s a hurricane in the forecast for your area. But you have a teensy problem – no one in the entire world wants to sell you home insurance.
What the heck? Why not?
We’ll explain.
Have questions? Chat with us now.Why can’t you get home insurance before a hurricane?
So, insurance carriers pay attention to the weather. They pay a lot of attention to it. And if there’s a hurricane, tropical storm, or tropical depression heading for a certain area, they’re going to do this thing called a binding restriction. That means they’re not selling or finalizing insurance for a while. They just kind of throw up their hands and say “No home insurance for you.” Which stinks, but it’s the way it is. They’ll usually start rolling out binding restrictions before a major storm and they don’t lift them until a little while after the hurricane passes.
(And if you already have home insurance, you probably can’t increase your insurance coverage limits or lower your deductible during the binding restriction.)
We wish there was a better answer for you or a super secret way that you can get insurance when a hurricane is looming…but it’s probably not going to happen if binding restrictions have been placed.
What about flood insurance?
Flood insurance is a great idea to protect your house since home insurance doesn’t cover flooding, but you need to purchase it well in advance of any major storms. Why? Because policies take 30 days to become effective. There’s a waiting period. (There a few – and we mean a few – exceptions to the waiting period, like if you’re closing on a house and need to get flood insurance to get the mortgage.)
Adulting is hard. Get insurance quotes live in chat.Need insurance quotes? Get started with home insurance quotes by filling out our online form, giving us a call, or messaging us on LiveChat.