St. Petersburg Insurance

Insurance in St. Petersburg, Florida

St. Petersburg is across the bay from our Riverview office and in a different county, and that county line changes real things about your policy. Pinellas is the most densely populated county in Florida, much of it low and close to water, and after Helene and Milton the rules around repairing property there are stricter than most homeowners expect.

St. Petersburg uses 49 percent, not 50

Almost everyone in Florida has heard of the FEMA “50 percent rule.” In the City of St. Petersburg the threshold is 49 percent. The city defines substantial improvement as any combination of repair, reconstruction or other improvement where the cumulative cost equals or exceeds 49 percent of the structure’s pre-damaged market value before the work starts.

Cross it and you are not simply repairing. You must bring the structure into compliance with current zoning, building and floodplain management requirements, which can mean elevating the existing structure or rebuilding to those standards.

Two details that catch people out:

• It applies to all repairs, not just flood repairs. The rule covers every building in the flood hazard area, even when the damage had nothing to do with flooding.
• Market value means the tax assessment. The city uses the Pinellas County Property Appraiser’s assessed value of the structure. If you believe that is wrong, you may submit an independent appraisal from a state-licensed appraiser, completed within the last 12 months, reflecting the pre-storm condition.

The insurance consequence is direct. If a covered loss triggers a substantial improvement determination, the cost of complying with the current code is not part of your ordinary repair claim. Ordinance or law coverage is what pays it, and the limit you carry — often a percentage of Coverage A, sometimes far too small — is the number that decides whether an elevation requirement is survivable. In St. Petersburg this is the first thing we look at on a homeowners review, not the last.

Flood, and the elevation certificate

If your property has an elevation certificate, keep it and give us a copy. Under Risk Rating 2.0 an elevation certificate is no longer required to buy an NFIP policy, but it can still lower your rate, and it is the document that settles arguments with a lender about zone and base flood elevation.

What we write here

Home, condo, flood, auto, boat, renters, umbrella and business. Being an independent brokerage matters more in Pinellas than almost anywhere, because carrier appetite there varies sharply by zip code and by distance to water. Call (813) 499-9347 and we will shop it.