Vacation Tip: Dock Insurance in Florida
Sunny Florida is one of the best places to take a boat or yacht out for a quick getaway. Warm sandy beaches, great fishing, terrific diving and don't forget the amazing food.
But if you plan to splurge on a boat, keep a few things in mind here.
Whenever you are trying to get a homeowner’s insurance policy for yourself, you might think that what else of your belongings will be covered in that policy. Especially, if you own a boat, you might think if you need to include your boat and the dock in the policy or not? In that case, in order for your homeowner’s insurance to cover your dock, you must own it yourself, and it typically must be on your property. Trust me, dock claims are not uncommon in Florida.
If your boat and dock get covered by the homeowner’s insurance policy you are getting as an additional ‘other structures coverage’, it will allow you to protect the financial value of the dock from various types of damages covered by the policy. The policy will mainly fall under personal property coverage, if the dock is perfectly on your property, and you use the dock from time to time to get your boat running on the water.
Personal property coverage policies or specifically dock insurance policies can be particularly important for the people living in Florida. As for people who live in Florida, having a dock can be a normal thing, as it provides them a huge convenience regarding owning a boat. Owning a dock helps them a lot to conveniently get on with their boats and without any further complications.
So, in order to protect your property from damage and liability suits, you will need to have the insurance coverage mentioned earlier. You can either go for personal property insurance coverage, or you can directly go for boat insurance coverage that comes with additional coverage for your dock. Or, you can simply get a homeowner’s insurance that will cover your dock too, which is on your property, and hence eligible to get the coverage of a homeowner’s insurance.
Why Is It Important to Have Insurance for Docks in Florida?
Florida is a state which gets very frequently hit by different calamities such as hurricanes, tropical storms, floods, etc. And docks can very easily get damaged by water-borne debris, crazy wind flow, and of course, huge waves that get crashed onto the dock in full force. Also, if your boat or jet ski remains tied to the dock, might rock against the dock violently during really intense weather even if you’ve secured it properly. And as a consequence, both your dock and boat might get severely damaged.
No matter how it gets damaged, if your dock somehow faces damage to a severe degree, it can suffer heavily expensive impacts. You will have to go through a lot of expenses to make your dock fully functional again, and the worst-case scenario is your financial state might get crippled to fix the damaged dock. And the risk of having intense weather conditions is too much. As storm surges, lightning conditions, hurricanes, high tidal waves, etc. are really common in this state and keep happening very frequently. And that’s why you need to have some action that will protect you from the risk of bearing the huge expenses of fixing your damaged dock. So, you need to get a proper insurance policy that will help you cover the expenses of the docks.
Home and Flood Insurance- Relation with Docks
The national flood insurance program doesn’t cover the boat docks almost in any case. Bridges, piers, seawalls, wharves, etc. also get typically excluded too from the program, as these are not part of the design of the program. But the good thing is, you can get it in your homeowner’s insurance as discussed earlier. Your dock won’t be covered in the basic homeowner’s policies, but you can include it if you get a detached structure rider on the policy. Typically, these structures are covered at 2%, 5%, 10& of the coverage limit of the main structure.
However, all the home policies won’t cover all the possible ways your dock can get damaged. But if you get an insurance policy specifically for your dock, or in other words, a dock insurance policy, it will cover all the possible ways of damages. Plus the homeowner’s policy will require you to have the dock directly on your property.
Getting Dock Insurance Along With Your Boat Insurance
Some insurers might offer you an insurance policy with a bundling discount, which will cover both your boat and your dock. This coverage can either be a part of your homeowner’s policy or can be a completely separate policy, depending on your insurer and your specific needs.
However, many dock policies might have certain exclusions, like a total collapse of the dock into the water, damaging of the dock through thawing or freezing, etc. Fire accidents, lightning, boating accidents, etc. are typically covered in these dock insurance policies.
Final Words
So, if you are living in Florida, and you won your own dock, then you must consider getting an insurance policy for it. As it can cause you a lot of trouble and expenses if you don’t go for it and your dock gets damaged due to something. And given the natural state of Florida, occurrences that can cause damage to your dock are pretty common. So, getting a dock insurance policy will be a very wise decision, and it will be able to save you from a lot of trouble and expenses.
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