The federal government technically is correct though it's considered to be a sunken room. The problem is their definition of basement is really typically silly. It means all four sides are below ground. They don't even identify a walkout basement basement but instead elevated buildings with enclosures. Thankfully, FEMA does have a 60 day appeal process.
@@nooneyouknow5516 the problem is how real estate determines a basement and how the federal government determines the basement are completely different. For example, they do not recognize walkout basement.
@@FloodInsuranceGuru These are things that they should be more transparent about and frankly seem like bs designed to give them loopholes to avoid paying. How are we supposed to know they syphilis call a sunken living room, a basement? I'm all about personal responsibility, but how would one ever be able to anticipate this?
@@nooneyouknow5516 This loophole has probably existed since day one. People don’t read their policies. Don’t blame them as most people are too complicated and buyers make assumptions they shouldn’t. I learned a long time when buying specialty insurance to ask specific questions. While I don’t know flood insurance, the exemptions built into fine arts policies can be unique. Also my father was CEO of an insurance company. At the time, he would tell his friends to buy a Chubb auto policy. They are expensive but fair. Don’t buy XXX auto insurance, which was widely sold and advertised, because its policy had exemption after exemptions built written into it. As a side point, he refused to sell auto insurance as there was too much fraud.
She said none of it was below ground level. She said you had to walk up 4.5 inches to get into the house, and 3.5 inch step down. That's 1" above the ground.
Absolutely, at some point they went all in bought out our government and now there are laws that make it so we get fined for not having it….. sounds like the best scam ever
I can assure you per the Florida Building Code 2023, 8th Edition a 3.5" drop is NOT classified as a basement. Ask me how I know! I'll send you what a "story" vs a 3.5" drop is classified as. Send them a Notice of Liability immediately!!!!
You are dealing with the National Flood Insurance Program, this a federal program, they don't generally waver from what the policy classifies as a basement.
The problem is that Florida's building code and with the national flood insurance program looks like are different and many situations as the photo program does not control building codes locally they only control the base for elevation and what you can build up
Sunken living rooms have fractured more ankles, knees and hips. I worked as an ER RN for 20 years and so many mostly older people, visiting or viewing properties trip and fall. They are wheelchair and walker traps, I hope no one builds them any more. I don't know about them as a basement, though
You don’t have to be a nurse, etc. to realize this. I am not in the medical profession. But when I was in my 30s? I missed a step down and fell. Then and there I said no to any house with a step down.
@@ljkutten1303At no point did anyone say that you needed to be a nurse to know this. But thank you for showing the devastating impact of your head injury. 🤗
Damn time to start filing class action lawsuits on insurance companies. It's going to take a MAJOR move by homeowners... EVERYONE CANCEL THEIR INSURANCE. All at one. Damn the mortgage companies... maybe it will force lenders to help with this absurd and illegal practice.
@@cricketlovely8541 The insurance companies would probably love it if you cancelled your HO insurance in Florida. The lenders won’t care as they will force place your insurance and charge you for that privilege.
I live in Florida. This year, I decided to only get fire, vandalism and theft, and liability insurance on my house. My hurricane/wind premium was quoted at $6K with a $6K deductible IF THE INSURANCE WOULD EVEN PAY ME. Flood was going to be another $1,700 for a house built in 1979 that has never come close to flooding. It just made more sense to take my chances and pay for hurricane damage myself. My Milton damage cost me $100. 😊
Kind of reminds me of my insurance company that arbitrarily increased the square footage of living space my home, which affected my premium. They claimed the third unheated bay in my garage would be considered living space.
They want your premium, but will fight tooth and nail before they'll ever pay out a claim. Lawsuits they could care less about, as they have unlimited government money to fight them.
@@neilkurzman4907 insurance is for catastrophic losses. A few years ago in Lafayette, Colorado they had a fire during a wind storm. Whole subdivisions burned to completely to the ground. Nothing was left except metal objects.
As an ex Floridian I feel the Pain these people like many other floridians are going thru. It's only going to get worse. I thank God saw this coming and vacated the State in 2021. Best decision i made. Family and friends still there speak of the horror stories they are going thru with their claims. The new norm is having to Sue for several years to get your claims paid and the state does nothing to help with these breach of contracts. Sunken living rooms are not a basement people, the homes by code are build 2 ft above ground level The Fema contracted GUY is Ignorant or getting some incentive to deny claims. "YOU NEED TO GET A LAWYER AND SUE".
Why is their floor made like that, with a step down into the room? Weird. Insurance business model in action here folks. Take in premiums and don’t pay claims.
If a living area is below the required Finished floor as mandated by the original building code and floor maps in effect at the time of construction then it is a basement.. it is below the required finish floor.. If not then it is not a basement ..you can thank ron desantis for this ... the new insurance language is part of his deregulation of the insurance agencies...
Did anyone check out the inside of her home? Did she read the whole policy? Did they go over the policy with a insurance agent? If the definition of a basement in Florida is a room below ground level that tidbit had to be in the policy from the very start/new policy year.
Probably not I teach insurance every day and I can tell you that very few of them have ever asked about a sunken room, but it's something that we discussed in our TH-cam videos on our flood education channel
I doubt it was in the policy. It probably said they exclude basements, as THEY define them. This is a calculated loophole they created for themselves imo.
How long is it expected to take before the People are fed up with being mistreated like this and see to it that they won't be mistreated like this in the future?
@@jerrysdancer3769 they do every day because it's defined in the policy. The problem is I'm sadly more than 90% of people just never read it. It's been in there for more than 20 years.
Those were the days.....insurance was not mandatory in the 70s in Illinois......no car insurance, no fire insurance, no flood insurance, no property insurance.....and we never filed a claime for 32 years 😊.......but now.......now we live in Florida 🌴 🌞 😳😕......if I may add here..... Some of our biggest politicians are in the pockets of the insurance industry 🥴
Treble damages in Florida refer to a legal concept where a court awards three times the amount of actual damages to the plaintiff in certain cases. This type of compensation aims to deter wrongful conduct and provide a more substantial financial penalty for the defendant.
Don’t know anything about insurance claims but as a 30 year licensed, certified, FHA, and VA appraiser - from an appraiser standpoint- if any part of any level is below grade it is considered basement area.
You need to use the FEMA policy against them. So their policy statement about being below sub grade on all sides. Get a good laser level and get a measurement from the top of the once finish floor to establish a benchmark. Then turn the laser outside ( through windows and door openings) if ANYWHERE the exterior grade measurement is MORE than your inside measurement your exterior grade is lower than inside grade. Remember they stated all sides. So if just one side of your exterior grade is lower by an 1/8” their standard is not met and claim should be paid.
I had this issue, our insurance company at our old house went up by 40000 because they said our crawl space was a basement. It took me 6 months of battling the insurance companies to get it readjusted to a crawl space. They also adjusted our policy illegally.
It is the job of insurance adjusters to find any reason to deny coverage. Even making a small but undocumented change to the home can lead to a denial based on not disclosing a change.
do you think they renovated to create a slightly sunken living rm? insurance adjusters would have seen the home to approve things before... now pulling stunts as always to get out of the payout.
I love how she says the distinctive “flohr-duhh” and then thinks she’s got to say say “I’m from new yawk”. Yeah, we know. Hopefully the insurance company backs off of trying to screw them over
Right because if you think if people stopped buying flooding insurance, they’d be better off? You may want to talk to the people of North Carolina. Over 90% of them didn’t have flood insurance.
People always want the cheapest policy, for such an important, valuable product they never think that they maybe should have a lawyer or consultant review it before buying.
This is why picking the right flood insurance agent is so important. A good agent would have been able to explain what a sunken room or sunken crawlspace means.
I would never live in Florida. Nice place to visit but too expensive to live. The state is completely mismanaged and volatile to hurricanes, storm surge and flooding. No state income tax does not outweigh the super high property tax rates and insurance costs. Florida is not for retirees on fixed incomes.
My question is, why would this exist in the first place? What architectural reason is there to drop part of the main floor? I don't think it is allowed under current code.I might be wrong.
How in the fudge does one know all the idiotic rules. Any and all insurers should take a close look at your house and give you what if and not going to happen before your policy is signed by all sides. None of this B.S. years later that oh well fudge you.
The question is not whether the step down is a basement, but whether the living room was built below grade level. The Flood Insurance regulation says you cannot build below grade level. It the 3.5 inches makes it below ground level, they are out of luck.
its above ground level... they have to take steps UP into their house...then a few inches in the living rm.. no one is digging below ground in Florida, smh.
@ You are probably right, but we don’t know that for sure. As the TV reporter said, check your elevation map. If it is done, you and I might see her basement is below elevation.
Its a Government program for individuals in Flood zone n Corporations Insurance companies Wont write a policy. Tyese folks couldn't get a Regular policy. Its common in Florida.
I would look at the blueprint for the house and see if the living room was drawn as a basement. But yeah it all sounds very stupid even for Florida standards of stupid crazy.
People are blaming the insurance company for not paying, when most policies clearly spell out that it is not covered. If they did not read the policy, its on them. They should have gone over the policy thoroughly
Do you think the policy spelled out their definition of a basement? I doubt it and since we don't have basements in Florida, who would question it? As the reporter said, it's laughable. Except it's devastating to the homeowner.
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If they lose in court they can should ask the judge to get the insurance company to return their 12 years worth of useless coverage.
Ya they should have never covered it in the first place
With interest.
“Florida basement”newly defined term, courtesy of the insurance industry.
LOLIKR
Absurd. She's right. We don't have basements. This shouldn't be tolerated.
The federal government technically is correct though it's considered to be a sunken room. The problem is their definition of basement is really typically silly. It means all four sides are below ground. They don't even identify a walkout basement basement but instead elevated buildings with enclosures. Thankfully, FEMA does have a 60 day appeal process.
@@nooneyouknow5516 the problem is how real estate determines a basement and how the federal government determines the basement are completely different. For example, they do not recognize walkout basement.
@@FloodInsuranceGuru These are things that they should be more transparent about and frankly seem like bs designed to give them loopholes to avoid paying. How are we supposed to know they syphilis call a sunken living room, a basement? I'm all about personal responsibility, but how would one ever be able to anticipate this?
Only in the Clermont fl area where there are hill areas
@@nooneyouknow5516 This loophole has probably existed since day one. People don’t read their policies. Don’t blame them as most people are too complicated and buyers make assumptions they shouldn’t. I learned a long time when buying specialty insurance to ask specific questions. While I don’t know flood insurance, the exemptions built into fine arts policies can be unique. Also my father was CEO of an insurance company. At the time, he would tell his friends to buy a Chubb auto policy. They are expensive but fair. Don’t buy XXX auto insurance, which was widely sold and advertised, because its policy had exemption after exemptions built written into it. As a side point, he refused to sell auto insurance as there was too much fraud.
The insurance company is pulling a fast ine. There is no excuse to deny this claim based upon this premise.
It's the National Flood Insurance Program that came up with this years ago.
@@allanfreeman6131 it's been in the definition gosh probably more than 20 years now
She said none of it was below ground level. She said you had to walk up 4.5 inches to get into the house, and 3.5 inch step down. That's 1" above the ground.
But it is not a basement
Insurance is a scam.
Absolutely, at some point they went all in bought out our government and now there are laws that make it so we get fined for not having it….. sounds like the best scam ever
Absolutely! They're in the business to make money, not help anyone.
these insurance companies will do anything to deny claims
It's not a loophole, it's outright fraud.
I can assure you per the Florida Building Code 2023, 8th Edition a 3.5" drop is NOT classified as a basement. Ask me how I know! I'll send you what a "story" vs a 3.5" drop is classified as. Send them a Notice of Liability immediately!!!!
You are dealing with the National Flood Insurance Program, this a federal program, they don't generally waver from what the policy classifies as a basement.
The problem is that Florida's building code and with the national flood insurance program looks like are different and many situations as the photo program does not control building codes locally they only control the base for elevation and what you can build up
That insurance adjuster must be afraid of heights
That floor is not below ground level.
So then my tv antenna classifies my house as a sky scraper.
Which would make my house (w/ underground basement, 2 stories, & an attic) into Miami.
If she filled that 3 inch step down with water and goldfish would that be a aquarium?
Considering it's Florida...
Hilarious!
Great response/question.
If she filled it with just water ,it would be considered a swimming pool 🏊
I mean she lives in an area that 50 years ago was probably a swamp so, yeah kinda.
Typical insurance crap…..you better pay on time but claims are negotiable
Sunken living rooms have fractured more ankles, knees and hips. I worked as an ER RN for 20 years and so many mostly older people, visiting or viewing properties trip and fall. They are wheelchair and walker traps, I hope no one builds them any more. I don't know about them as a basement, though
My Mes a retired R.N too. I just showed her this. You n hed Smart wonen. She said near exact thing.😊
You don’t have to be a nurse, etc. to realize this. I am not in the medical profession. But when I was in my 30s? I missed a step down and fell. Then and there I said no to any house with a step down.
@@ljkutten1303At no point did anyone say that you needed to be a nurse to know this. But thank you for showing the devastating impact of your head injury. 🤗
So is a 3.5 inch step up a Condo?
that would be the second floor??? The Attic??
High rise!
Damn time to start filing class action lawsuits on insurance companies. It's going to take a MAJOR move by homeowners... EVERYONE CANCEL THEIR INSURANCE. All at one. Damn the mortgage companies... maybe it will force lenders to help with this absurd and illegal practice.
This actually might be what “We the People” need to do. We might need to start protesting out loud in the streets.
@@cricketlovely8541 The insurance companies would probably love it if you cancelled your HO insurance in Florida. The lenders won’t care as they will force place your insurance and charge you for that privilege.
Wow! I didn't know I have an above-ground-level "basement"! Crazy! Insurance companies are scrambling to not pay out anything for any made-up reason.
Yes, that potentially could be considered a walkout basement
@@FloodInsuranceGuru
YAHUSHA Repay you!
I would be pouring cement before redoing.
Wouldn’t a basement be stated in the house plan? That’s so crazy.
The insurance companies take your money to use for their fun times been saying this forever.
Basements are below grade.
These insurance companies need to be thrown in prison.
I live in Florida. This year, I decided to only get fire, vandalism and theft, and liability insurance on my house. My hurricane/wind premium was quoted at $6K with a $6K deductible IF THE INSURANCE WOULD EVEN PAY ME. Flood was going to be another $1,700 for a house built in 1979 that has never come close to flooding. It just made more sense to take my chances and pay for hurricane damage myself. My Milton damage cost me $100. 😊
Was that $100 "damages" in liqour? 😆
@@Ulquiorra105 lol!!!! Chocolate 😆
Kind of reminds me of my insurance company that arbitrarily increased the square footage of living space my home, which affected my premium. They claimed the third unheated bay in my garage would be considered living space.
I would rephrase this, it is not a basement but rather the ground floor. The other raised step up are above ground floor or upstairs.
They want your premium, but will fight tooth and nail before they'll ever pay out a claim.
Lawsuits they could care less about, as they have unlimited government money to fight them.
I’m done with homeowner’s insurance. Just another scam. I’ll self insure.
Ask the people in North Carolina have that worked out for them?
@@neilkurzman4907 insurance is for catastrophic losses. A few years ago in Lafayette, Colorado they had a fire during a wind storm. Whole subdivisions burned to completely to the ground. Nothing was left except metal objects.
Sue them
As an ex Floridian I feel the Pain these people like many other floridians are going thru. It's only going to get worse. I thank God saw this coming and vacated the State in 2021. Best decision i made. Family and friends still there speak of the horror stories they are going thru with their claims. The new norm is having to Sue for several years to get your claims paid and the state does nothing to help with these breach of contracts. Sunken living rooms are not a basement people, the homes by code are build 2 ft above ground level The Fema contracted GUY is Ignorant or getting some incentive to deny claims. "YOU NEED TO GET A LAWYER AND SUE".
Why is their floor made like that, with a step down into the room? Weird.
Insurance business model in action here folks. Take in premiums and don’t pay claims.
We have a living room like this. It was considered an upgrade.
Nice try with that one. It's clearly not a basement.
This is exactly why people don't trust insurance companies 😢
If a living area is below the required Finished floor as mandated by the original building code and floor maps in effect at the time of construction then it is a basement.. it is below the required finish floor.. If not then it is not a basement ..you can thank ron desantis for this ... the new insurance language is part of his deregulation of the insurance agencies...
Look we have all seen it and heard it, insurance companies are doing what ever they can to deny insurance claims
No surprise, never trust an insurance company. The only thing they do well is raising prices.
Did anyone check out the inside of her home? Did she read the whole policy? Did they go over the policy with a insurance agent? If the definition of a basement in Florida is a room below ground level that tidbit had to be in the policy from the very start/new policy year.
Probably not I teach insurance every day and I can tell you that very few of them have ever asked about a sunken room, but it's something that we discussed in our TH-cam videos on our flood education channel
I doubt it was in the policy. It probably said they exclude basements, as THEY define them. This is a calculated loophole they created for themselves imo.
Typical insurance bs. They do anything they can to weasel out of paying
How long is it expected to take before the People are fed up with being mistreated like this and see to it that they won't be mistreated like this in the future?
They shouldn't get away with this 🤬😤😡😠
@@jerrysdancer3769 they do every day because it's defined in the policy. The problem is I'm sadly more than 90% of people just never read it. It's been in there for more than 20 years.
What about split levels...so are they not covered? Often times they have one oart that is below ground level partially
Those were the days.....insurance was not mandatory in the 70s in Illinois......no car insurance, no fire insurance, no flood insurance, no property insurance.....and we never filed a claime for 32 years 😊.......but now.......now we live in Florida 🌴 🌞 😳😕......if I may add here..... Some of our biggest politicians are in the pockets of the insurance industry 🥴
They are into everything!
My Mom lived in Town and Country. No basements there! FING RIDICULOUS! Sue the F out of them! Outrageous!
So why take the premium , if they would not be covered.
It’s called greed and misrepresentation!
Treble damages in Florida refer to a legal concept where a court awards three times the amount of actual damages to the plaintiff in certain cases. This type of compensation aims to deter wrongful conduct and provide a more substantial financial penalty for the defendant.
Attorney now
A basement??? In Florida wow how is that possible
they should be prosecuted for insurance fraud (the insurance company)
every house in Florida is below sealevel and they are all basements.
My brother is having the Same Problem!
Don’t know anything about insurance claims but as a 30 year licensed, certified, FHA, and VA appraiser - from an appraiser standpoint- if any part of any level is below grade it is considered basement area.
They better hope they don't have a local office
Yes. Town n country has a few basements. Born and raised
The list of ridiculous excuses (for claims denied) is growing and getting wildly insane. This is definitely on the list.
You need to use the FEMA policy against them. So their policy statement about being below sub grade on all sides. Get a good laser level and get a measurement from the top of the once finish floor to establish a benchmark. Then turn the laser outside ( through windows and door openings) if ANYWHERE the exterior grade measurement is MORE than your inside measurement your exterior grade is lower than inside grade. Remember they stated all sides. So if just one side of your exterior grade is lower by an 1/8” their standard is not met and claim should be paid.
Homes with step downs just tanked in value they’re all over Carrollwood/Northdale area too
Buying a home is now becoming a scam. With insurance, HOA fees, PMI, FEMA insurance, mortgages, etc.
The greed
Always request a Vaseline clause on your insurance policy so any claims don't hurt so much.
We don't have basements in fl. And basements are a lot deeper than 3 inches. What a joke.
I had this issue, our insurance company at our old house went up by 40000 because they said our crawl space was a basement.
It took me 6 months of battling the insurance companies to get it readjusted to a crawl space. They also adjusted our policy illegally.
It's a converted garage into living space.
It is the job of insurance adjusters to find any reason to deny coverage. Even making a small but undocumented change to the home can lead to a denial based on not disclosing a change.
do you think they renovated to create a slightly sunken living rm? insurance adjusters would have seen the home to approve things before... now pulling stunts as always to get out of the payout.
Hire an adjusteras i did! Youll pay them 10 percent of the settlement but it's a necessary evil.
Insurance accepted the money for a "basement"
I love how she says the distinctive “flohr-duhh” and then thinks she’s got to say say “I’m from new yawk”. Yeah, we know.
Hopefully the insurance company backs off of trying to screw them over
Let the games begin
If enough people stop buying insurance this would stop.
If you have a mortgage you have to get home insurance. It's not optional.
We stopped
Right because if you think if people stopped buying flooding insurance, they’d be better off? You may want to talk to the people of North Carolina. Over 90% of them didn’t have flood insurance.
Ask for triple damages at trial…
Don't move to Florida, problem solved.
This is comical
Of course its a basement not covered just taxable
Not a loophole. A lie.
How much of our money is being spent and sent overseas?
People always want the cheapest policy, for such an important, valuable product they never think that they maybe should have a lawyer or consultant review it before buying.
This is why picking the right flood insurance agent is so important. A good agent would have been able to explain what a sunken room or sunken crawlspace means.
Lawyer up!
I thought they insured the house, not a room
I would never live in Florida. Nice place to visit but too expensive to live. The state is completely mismanaged and volatile to hurricanes, storm surge and flooding. No state income tax does not outweigh the super high property tax rates and insurance costs. Florida is not for retirees on fixed incomes.
My property taxes were much higher in Michigan than Florida for the same square footage and house value.
Greed and corruption is the usa way.
That isn't a basement sheesh insurance will do anything to get out of paying
Living room is the main room..
We have an actual basement below my sunken living room. Just saying.
My question is, why would this exist in the first place? What architectural reason is there to drop part of the main floor? I don't think it is allowed under current code.I might be wrong.
You've never seen a sunken living room?
@@nooneyouknow5516 Not since the 1960's and certainly not here in Florida.
Law suits 😮
Lawyer?
How in the fudge does one know all the idiotic rules. Any and all insurers should take a close look at your house and give you what if and not going to happen before your policy is signed by all sides. None of this B.S. years later that oh well fudge you.
Gee, maybe read the policy.
our government at work
SCAMMERS
Damn Capitalism
Usually Swimming 🏊♂️ Americans 😮
Capitalism doing what it does💀
😂
Desantis ruined Florida.
It actually has nothing to do with him, but it has to do with the federal flood insurance program who sets the standards across the country
It's a good idea to read the policy and understand it
Aint Cold Blooded Unfettered American Capitalism n Greed grand,lol? If youre a Corporation. 😅😅😅 Insurance corporation. 😅😅😅
It's actually not related to that since the insurer is FEMA. Not that I put this past the others, but this is your government at work.
The question is not whether the step down is a basement, but whether the living room was built below grade level. The Flood Insurance regulation says you cannot build below grade level. It the 3.5 inches makes it below ground level, they are out of luck.
its above ground level... they have to take steps UP into their house...then a few inches in the living rm.. no one is digging below ground in Florida, smh.
@ You are probably right, but we don’t know that for sure. As the TV reporter said, check your elevation map. If it is done, you and I might see her basement is below elevation.
Which insurance company is it? I need to make sure blacklist them forever.
Its a Government program for individuals in Flood zone n Corporations Insurance companies Wont write a policy. Tyese folks couldn't get a Regular policy. Its common in Florida.
It's fema via the National Food Insurance Program. We don't have a lot of choices here.
I would look at the blueprint for the house and see if the living room was drawn as a basement. But yeah it all sounds very stupid even for Florida standards of stupid crazy.
It's not Florida doing it. Fema is the insurer.
People are blaming the insurance company for not paying, when most policies clearly spell out that it is not covered. If they did not read the policy, its on them. They should have gone over the policy thoroughly
Do you think the policy spelled out their definition of a basement? I doubt it and since we don't have basements in Florida, who would question it?
As the reporter said, it's laughable. Except it's devastating to the homeowner.