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Hurricane Inspection 'Useless' To Some

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By LINDSAY WILKES-EDRINGTON, The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 19, 2007

TAMPA - Thousands of Florida homeowners signed up for the My Safe Florida Home program hoping to receive grant money to help fortify their houses against a hurricane.

What they got instead was a free wind-inspection report that detailed needed improvements, but didn't offer any funding to fix them.

'To me it's just a piece of paper, it's useless,' said Mark Przepierski, a Tampa homeowner who applied for the program in September.

The state paid for an inspector to visit Przepierski's home despite knowing he was no longer eligible for a matching grant under the My Safe Florida Home program. Like tens of thousand of others across the state, his home near Hillsborough Avenue was cut from grant eligibility when the Legislature changed the program's rules this year.

Although they can't collect a state grant of up to $5,000 to fortify their homes, those homeowners remain eligible for the inspections, which cost the state $150 apiece.

The state intends to spend $36 million on inspections this year on homes eligible and ineligible for the grants, claiming they can help homeowners by lowering insurance rates and giving them a clear picture of the durability of their homes. Next year, the state plans to spend $19 million on the inspections, which can identify needed improvements such as shingles, garage doors and window shutters.

On average, homeowners involved in a pilot phase of the My Safe Florida Home program last year received an 18 percent insurance discount because inspectors found their homes were better braced for hurricanes than their insurance companies thought, said Tara Klimek, a spokeswoman for Florida Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, who oversees the program.

Industry officials agree the inspection can help, depending on what it finds.

'What we've been finding is that a lot of people have done some stuff that will save them money, and they didn't realize it and the insurance company didn't realize it,' said Sam Miller, a spokesman for the Florida Insurance Council. 'But it's based on what the inspection finds. If an inspection is made and nothing is found that qualifies for a discount, there would be no discount.'

Some homeowners who've undergone the inspection said they don't plan to contact their insurance company. They said they applied with My Safe Florida Home for the grant, not the inspection, and worry what an insurance company would do if the report showed a weakness in their home they can't afford to fix without the grant.

'I'm not doing anything at this junction,' said Gerry Young, who applied for the program in 2006 and had his Tampa home inspected May 22. 'Everything they're doing is vague.'

'Limited Amount Of Money'

A state lawmaker responsible for the change in the program's eligibility says it was a matter of funding that led to drastic cuts in the number of homes eligible for the grants.

'There's a limited amount of money,' said Sen. Bill Posey, R-Rockledge and a sponsor of the Senate bill. 'How do you get the biggest bang for the buck? Put it on the front line or the back line?'

State Rep. Trey Traviesa, R-Tampa, who sponsored a House bill, did not return phone calls for comment.

Then-Gov. Jeb Bush unveiled the program with a budget of $250 million during a hurricane conference in May 2006. The money was intended to go toward inspections and to provide grants to homeowners whose houses were insured below $500,000 and who had a homestead exemption.

As of May 1, the insured value of eligible homes dropped to $300,000 and a provision was added stating that all eligible homes must be in a 'wind-borne debris region' as defined by international building codes. Although the law didn't spell it out, that code specifies areas where winds of 120 mph or more are likely to hit, meaning coastal areas.

As passed, only six of the state's 67 counties are entirely covered now: Pinellas, Sarasota, Miami-Dade, Monroe, Broward and Escambia. Thirty counties are partially covered, with only coastal slivers of Hillsborough and Pasco counties making the cut.

About 18,000 people across the state who applied for the program during its pilot phase in August are now ineligible for the grants because they don't meet the new restrictions. Twenty-two percent of those, or 4,300, live in Hillsborough County, making it the county with the most ineligible applicants in the state.

Delays Irk Early Appliers

Posey said there was no thought to grandfather homeowners who had applied for inspections before the change because the program was so new it wasn't known how many were in the pipeline.

Like other homeowners, Przepierski is upset by months of delays from the time he applied for the grant until an inspector arrived at his home, five days after the rules had changed and made his home ineligible for the grant.

'I filed for the grant as soon as it came out in September,' he said. 'I called in December and was told they'd received my application and that they'd inspect Hillsborough County the next year. I contacted them again in April, and they said they'd finally send someone out on May 6.'

He wonders why so many homeowners in Hillsborough County weren't inspected until after the rules changed May 1.

'It's like they were slipping everything underneath the wire,' he said. 'I feel like I got the short end of stick because of where I live.'

Klimek, the state spokeswoman, said people had to wait so long for an inspection because there originally weren't enough inspectors to handle the overwhelming response. The state hired 11 firms in April, and since then, she said, the response to inspections has accelerated.

But homeowners wanted the grant, not the inspection.

'Having that $5,000 is what motivated us to apply in the first place,' said Alan Schwartz of New Port Richey, who applied in September and had his house inspected May 16.

The program is funded through 2009, and by then the state hopes to have handed out a total of $100 million in matching grants and $60 million worth of free inspections.

Unless the rules are changed again, those grants will be given to homeowners on the coast rather than the interior part of the state.

Klimek said she understands that people are upset and frustrated by the changes, but that the Department of Financial Services can't change the program.

'The Legislature is the one that made the decision and we don't have any choice but to follow it,' Klimek said. 'If you have concerns about how the law is right now, I'd tell you to talk to your local legislator.'

Reporters Jerry Stockfisch and Russell Ray contributed to this report. Reporter Lindsay Wilkes-Edrington can be reached at (813) 259-7621 or lwilkes-edrington

@tampatrib.com.

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