Florida’s Citizens Now Accepting Alternative Mobile Home Valuation Tools
On March 2, Citizens began sending out the first of 100,000 postcards to mobile and manufactured home owners encouraging them to talk to their insurance agents to ensure that improvements and upgrades to their homes are adequately factored into their coverage.
Citizens now accepts MSB cost estimator and e2Value cost estimator along with its standard 360Value cost estimator. Changes in valuation will be applied immediately and may affect premium.
According to Freddie Schinz, chairman of Citizens’ Consumer Services Committee, the additional valuation tools will allow Citizens customers to make sure they are getting the appropriate coverage for their homes and provide them with a simple outline to walk them through the valuation process.
The postcards also remind policyholders that they can insure their home for 25 percent more than its estimated value. The mailings will be sent in phases over the next several weeks with a final mailing scheduled for May 1. A Spanish language version is available on the Citizens website.
Citizens has sent multiple notices to agents informing them that alternative valuations are acceptable and providing additional information on how to processes coverage changes.
“We want customers to have the right amount of coverage for their homes,” said Christine Ashburn, Citizens vice president of Communications, Legislative and External Affairs. “We urge customers to connect with their agents, who are in the best position to determine what’s right for their customers.”