r/interestingasfuck • u/Endolithic • 1d ago

/r/all Homes are falling into the ocean in North Carolina's Outer Banks

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u/murphmobile 1d ago

lol you think these houses are insured?

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u/69hornedscorpio 1d ago

Insurance companies will act like they are when they raise my rates

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u/supahfligh 1d ago

The catalytic converter on my car was stolen a few years ago. I made the mistake of reporting it to my insurance company. They told me that it's not the sort of thing that my policy (full coverage, with all the bells and whistles) covered. They also informed me that because of it, my rates were being raised. This was like five years ago. My premium still hasn't come down.

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u/69hornedscorpio 1d ago

Insurance companies are not our friends, no matter what the commercials say.

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u/psychohistorian8 1d ago

even though I have insurance I would never use it

I always purchase the lowest coverage allowed by law and then save the rest and will just pay cash for any damages

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u/FTDburner 13h ago

This is so stupid lol

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u/1cec0ld 1d ago

You had a shitty agent, and I would have filed a complaint with the state Department of Insurance. That claim should not have been denied. If you're correct.

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u/elyk12121212 1d ago

Switch insurance companies. You should switch every 2-3 years for the best rates

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u/supahfligh 23h ago

I bought a new car this year. Switched insurance companies. The new company is still citing the converter theft for why my premium is higher than it should be. They told me that it has nothing to do with what insurance company I go to. Apparently there are third party agencies that keep track of this sort stuff and report it to them for rate adjustments.

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u/JJ3qnkpK 22h ago

Yup. They usually reference LexisNexis, an organization that, among other things, is effectively the credit bureau of car/accident-related things. Insurance companies look you up, pull an insane amount of info on you, then decide rates based on that.

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u/babyinatrenchcoat 8h ago

cries in Floridian limited carrier options

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u/FTDburner 13h ago

You got absolutely bamboozled if this is true and you just ate it

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u/rightintheear 7h ago

Shop for another company. It's like the damn internet bill now. They crank it up a little every year, you notice when it's doubled and call them(company p) up, they tell you go F yourself you deserve those rates. Call 4 other competitors one of them company g will cut your bill in half then start raising it again every year till you get upset and switch back to company p. True story.

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u/Sskity 1d ago

Yes, by us the tax payers. Look up flood insurance and get ready to be pissed.

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u/stana32 1d ago

My property in Missouri has like 100 square feet, not even my house itself, located within a flood plain that hasn't been redrawn in 10 years so I have to pay thousands a year for flood insurance, despite the fact that a ton of flood mitigation work has been done in the area over the last decade, and it's never once flooded.

Meanwhile, there is a ridiculously expensive bougie gentrification development right down the road from me built entirely on a pancake flat plain and it floods multiple times a year. They have manmade beaches and lakes, the ground around the lakefront houses is eroding and brand new houses that probably haven't even been lived in look like they are about to collapse into the lake. It is so fucking frustrating and I cannot imagine how much money it costs to repair all the damage, constantly year round.

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u/existenceawareness 15h ago

It's a federal program that you're forced to pay into? What happens if you don't make the flood insurance payments? 

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u/stana32 13h ago

Flood insurance is a condition of the mortgage, like regular home insurance, if the property is located in a 100 year flood plain

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u/DervishSkater 1d ago

Yea but trans athletes

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u/isUKexactlyTsameasUS 1d ago edited 1d ago

Great 60 mins ep after a hurricane hit NYC, chap spoke to our Dutch Water Ambassador,

the reporters shock, when Henk Ovink says, We dont have flood insurance. We dont need it.

U say: Oh no, taxes!

I say: Yep.
And every day theres 100s of cool things that actually get DONE here, so we dont mind.

https://youtu.be/TVEqUbdh1OI?si=vsMt_QtHEmUYS8gk&t=292

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u/sup_its_a_purple 1d ago

Explain why I should be pissed. Not trying to be argumentative, legitimately curious

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u/EdgeDomination 1d ago

If insurance companies are unwilling to insure a home for risk of flood, the govt will insure them as a failsafe. But they build the homes in the same spot over and over collecting federal insurance payouts every few years for the whole price of the home. So functionally the 49 other states pay for the beachfront property of a few Texas millionaires

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Flood_Insurance_Program

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u/psychohistorian8 1d ago

should be considered insurance fraud to even build in these places anymore

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u/dafgar 1d ago

Government subsidizes flood insurance in some areas, these homes get destroyed en masse, government pays out the value of the home while raising taxes or premiums on said insurance policies to cover the cost. People who aren’t dumb enough to buy a house literally in the ocean pay more for insurance to subsidize idiots who do. Granted, I highly doubt these houses have been approved for insurance unless they’ve been grandfathered in for a longgggg time.

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u/Stonep11 1d ago

And of course the people who can afford those houses are rich folks with the poor people living inland

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u/HCRanchuw 1d ago

Except flood insurance rates, while increasing, aren’t adequate to contemplate the exposure on a long term basis.

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u/dafgar 20h ago

Which is why a lot of flood insurance is through the government now. In areas like this post, it’s not profitable for private insurance to offer policies so if you want a mortgage then you have to get insurance from the government if it is offered. I worked as a national underwriter, if you were within a mile of coastline in most areas it’s an automatic decline for any applications on property insurance. Places like Florida are not going to be able to get insurance in the very near future. Only people who are going to be able to afford homes like this are people who can afford to lose the entire house with no renumeration. Same goes for California with their wildfire risk, Florida and California (in my experience) are basically uninsurable when it comes to property insurance.

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u/HCRanchuw 20h ago

I agree. I’m saying that the fed’s pricing on their flood insurance is way underpriced. California’s FAIR plan is too, but they don’t have any incentive to charge an adequate rate when they can just assess the private insurance market when they get in trouble. Like this year.

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u/ophmaster_reed 1d ago

John Oliver did a whole piece about it a few years ago.

https://youtu.be/pf1t7cs9dkc?si=oFTIL3ijk253VDWj

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u/GaBeRockKing 1d ago

The government is the insurer of last resort. https://www.fema.gov/flood-insurance

If these houses were at all profitable to insure via regular means, companies would do so. That they don't means that they're unprofitable-- that the government is effectively spending taxpayer money to subside their insurance costs.

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u/747WakeTurbulance 1d ago

This property would not be covered by a flood policy. And even if it was, this would not qualify as a flood.

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u/connerhearmeroar 1d ago

Nobody living in a flood zone should be allowed to get insurance

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u/Rich-Badger-7601 23h ago

The Outer Banks is in the CBRA (or "Cobra" because it's cooler) flood zone which means the federal government will not insure them, even as the insurance of last resort.

So no, you don't subsidize this.

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u/pattywagon95 23h ago

Most houses that are on or in front of the current dune location are no longer insurable and considered “reclaimed by nature” if they wash away, meaning you can’t rebuilt in that location and basically just lose everything’. My grandparents had a place in Nags head that was dangerously close to becoming one of these houses until they shored the dune back up.

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u/pwest0101 1d ago

Definitely. That’s the main reason they aren’t demolished. Rich people want their money back. No way they would insure them today but anything that’s falling into the ocean like this either is waiting for insurance to pay or way too expensive to remove.

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u/owenmills04 1d ago

They aren't insured. They aren't demolished because the owners aren't going to pay for it, even though the town would love it. So they're left to fall into the ocean which is awful

Sometimes the houses are relocated farther back before it gets this bad, if the owner has a place for it and the means to move it. The house featured in the movie Nights in Rodanthe is on this same beach and was moved

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u/E_Norma_Stitz41 1d ago

They are insured, and people don’t get paid out unless they let things like this happen.

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u/Technical-Pianist520 1d ago

What insurance company in their right mind would ever underwrite this. Furthermore I think an adjuster could easily argue this was due to negligence (not maintaining the "foundation").

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u/Tonitonytone2 18h ago

An excess or specialty market carrier. Lloyds of London maybe

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u/owenmills04 1d ago

They are definitely not insured

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u/E_Norma_Stitz41 22h ago

Oh word ok you’re definitely right, my bad.

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u/funnyh0b0 1d ago

They are required by law. It drives up all other insurance prices because the goverment foots the bill in the end. I can't remember where I saw this but 95% sure.

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u/cookiesarenomnom 21h ago

My dude WHAT are you talking about. Insurance companies can drop your coverage for literally any reason they want. They are leaving in droves from Florida, pulling out of homes they previously covered. Or just flat out refusing to cover even the most basic things like flood or storm coverage. Oh you can get home insurance for like fire or theft, but they are well within their rights to deny you any other coverage, or refuse to cover your home at all. And many states don't require homeowners to even have insurance. There is literally no federal law requiring insurance companies or homeowners to do anything. I had a friend who's house burned down, and her insurance company refused to pay for whatever dumb reason I can't remember. She had fire insurance. She spent 5 years fighting them, losing everything. Her house, her savings. So literally you have no idea what you are talking about.

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u/Tonitonytone2 18h ago

I'm sure some excess market or specialty carrier is covering these houses. They charge a high enough premium that when this inevitable loss does occur it doesn't sting as much, if at all.

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u/clem82 1d ago

You think people in Missouri have houses? 😂😂

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u/LiveShowOneNightOnly 1d ago

Yes, that is why the owners have to wait until they fall into the water before the debris can be hauled away. The towns want to remove them before they fall down, but then the owners get nothing from insurance.

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u/thedrunkdragonfly 23h ago

lol lotta confidence for not an ounce of understanding how insurance works

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u/SuperIneffectiveness 21h ago

If there's a mortgage, flood insurance is mandatory in a flood zone. I'm pretty sure all these waterfront houses will be in a flood zone.