The Federation of Manufactured Home Owners of Florida, Inc.
District 1 Membership Meeting
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Royal Palm Village, Haines City, FL
The meeting was called to order
Officers present: Alex Lai,
Glenn Haney, Lynn Page, Anita Balch, Juanita Adkins, Dee Grady, Virginia Biddle and Christine Mansell. Excused: Bob Delong.
Pledge to the flag: Glenn Haney
Prayer: Christine Mansell
Welcome: Diane Lema Royal Palm
HOA Pres.
Old Business:
Road to Recovery: A membership
drive program. Specific material for the program. Consists of a
letter (to be signed by the FMO rep) a yellow application, postage paid envelopes and plastic door hanger bags. You can acquire
them from the Largo office by calling Beth at 727-530-7539 or emailing at members@fmo.org
and asking for whatever number of Road to Recovery packets you will need. This is a project, so order only for the
people you are recruiting to become members. We are tracking our recruitment through the number of yellow forms that come
into Largo.
Renewals: You can now renew with a credit card either on line
or with a new membership application (attached). You may want to have some of them handy for renewals. Whether it is for new
or renewed membership one of the most recent FMO legal accomplishments that keep money in our pockets is the prevention of
taxation on our monthly lot rents which can be more than $200 a year depending on your lot rent. $ 20 a year for membership
to save $200 or more is a 10% rate of return on your investment. Need I say more?
HOA Officer Training: This coming Monday 2/20/2012 at
Lake Juliana Landings. Correction: Lundy Road not Burney. There will be members
of our community directing you once you are in the park. Currently have @ 100 people.
8:30 am Donuts; Program begins at 9:00am.
Park Rep Training: Looking for parks to hold park rep training. Next time would be for October or November. Check with your park schedule. We need
space for @ 50 plus parking. Three people are going to check. Get back to Glenn
Haney (863-956-0146).
Christine Mansell: (40 years in the property and casualty
insurance business; specialty Manufactured Homes: Member of the Professional Insurance
Agents of Florida). Mark Twain said “If you don’t read the paper,
you are uninformed. If you do read the paper, you are misinformed”. Can’t rely on any one source for info. The
State created Citizens Insurance in 2006. Now Citizens says they have $6 billion in reserve, one million policies and capabilities
to handle two (once in a century type) weather catastrophes. One reason is the other major companies who ran sound, money
backed businesses were required to pay money to Citizens to help them pay their claims (subsidizing the state program). Random
Non-renewals. Surplus Lines type of insurance is insurance that doesn’t come under the rules of the Florida State Insurance
Commission. They can charge what they want, give whatever coverage they want. If
you are in a park with older homes, say those built in the 80’s and you lost your insurance for whatever reason your
insurance company gives you, you are unlikely to find insurance to cover your home.
Q&A: Mike Wilkins, Jennings Resort: I have Foremost and
my neighbor has Citizens. We have the same home, same coverage but his premium is 50% higher than mine. DP policy was coverage
for Fire, Wind and Liability which was better to have than nothing. My company,
Jack’s Agency, is the oldest writer of Foremost in the State. We can’t write new policies. They are superior.
Keep that policy. If you need insurance I would advise you go to AARP and look
into it there. Q&A Robert Shaw, Village Park: Is it correct
that there is a Blanket Law Suit against Citizens? Yes! Q&A: Kent Pfremmer, Ariana Village: There is a deduction
on my policy for a catastrophe fee. Is that what is used to help Citizens? No
there has always been a fee for catastrophes just in case companies go bankrupt as a result of paying catastrophic claims.
For instance, in 1992, 11 companies went “bankrupt” after Andrew and another group went on “financial watch”. That money is secure! That other fee
is part of the insurance companies’ operational expenses. Q&A: Robert Michaels, Palm Tree Village: How do you feel about Modern USA? A very
good company. They are looking at the locations where they are writing business and “shutting down” certain areas
where they believe they are too concentrated. Q&A: Dennis Dusseau, Walden Shores: What
about Citizens Insurance Bill 1784 that Bill talked about last month? Some of it is still in legislation. As of 1/1/2012 they will not be covering open structures for new clients or renewals anymore. Major losses
are usually patio, carport, roof and screen room. They are not willing to pay for generally what happens in a wind storm because
they don’t want to lose the new found money from the other insurance companies.
A company like Foremost for example has never lessened their coverage but once after Andrew when the insurance commissioner
enacted a required deductible due to wind loss of a minimum of $500. There is another deductible for all other claims on our
policies.
Alex: Remember, the State doesn’t have to
ask permission from anybody because they exist as a result of a law saying so. The only way that can change is by the people
speaking out through legislation to have changes made. Remember when the sales
tax on rents not passed? You contacted your legislators and overwhelmed them. You were heard then and you can continue to
be heard. This bill is not what you want to happen and only you can make the difference. Contact your legislators and let
them know that you expect coverage for the money you are paying your insurance companies. Q&A: Roger Bolander,
Winter Haven Oaks: had a few claims and was terminated by American Traditions and ended up with Citizens. Surplus Lines Insurance companies are not answerable to the State. Allstate
is one who is known to cancel you out if you have too many claims. Insurance companies are looking more closely at what your
claim is about…..too many thefts…what kind of security do you have/ How secure is your neighborhood….to
many liability claims…people falling…how much debris is around both inside and outside your home etc. I never had a claim, but I was always concerned about liability. What if a customer should fall, hit
their head go into a coma, etc. That could be a pretty expensive claim.
Alex: Insurance is available out there. Call your
own agent directly, not the insurance company. Let him/her explain what is going on and perhaps they can give you a quote
with another company and with different coverage.
Legislative Update:
Any legislative proposals pertaining
to mobile home owners in land leased parks have been eliminated or stopped in committee for the moment. Senate just passed a budget of 70.7 Billion Dollars. Plan would eliminate 4000 state jobs and increase
the amount the state employees would pay for health insurance coverage. Governor has not signed off on it yet. The next issue is redistricting. The justices have until the end of the month to see if this complies with
the Florida constitution.
BREAK
Q&A: Dennis Dusseau, Walden Shores. Last month Bill said there were 19 parks in violation of the rules of advertising. They were offering free
rent for various months or years to prospective buyers.
