Build on the beach, and you should be on your own | Letters
Build there, and you’re on your own
To ease property insurance woes, Florida governments should buy damaged beachfront property | Column, Nov. 28
Columnist Robert Sanchez’s proposal is one worth considering, but to be truly effective, the expense of buying out property owners would be enormous. If people insist on building and rebuilding on vulnerable (coastal) properties, perhaps they should be denied property hazard insurance of any kind. In other words, they would have to be self-insured. Additionally, they would be required to put up an escrow account that would cover the cost of cleaning up the debris if their structure did not survive a natural disaster. Yes, they would still be required to pay property taxes and, no, they can’t “own” the beach. No matter what impact this would have on insurance rates and property values, I think the number structures on the beaches and barrier islands would drop dramatically. As things are, I think that Florida is rapidly becoming uninsurable anyway.
