Olivia Antonopoulos

Review of Universal Property and Casualt...

**FYI** Universal Property Insurance has 90 days t...

**FYI** Universal Property Insurance has 90 days to drop you AFTER signing a contract with them in order to decide if they will keep covering you or not. Most companies do an inspection beforehand, ensuring that no paperwork is signed without approving all areas of your household. Property Insurance, on the other hand, takes your first payment and sends you a contract to sign and then has the opportunity to drop you within 90 days if they find a fault in your home.

In my case, I did my due diligence and researched insurance companies before the purchase of my first home. We purchased our home under the assumption that Universal Property Insurance would cover us. We would have never purchased this home knowing that down the line, our insurance company would drop us because our PEX plumbing was installed prior to 2010 (2007). So, now here we are 2 months into owning our home WITHOUT homeowners insurance, being forced to choose a provider that is double our initial premium because Universal Property Insurance has a sign now ask later policy.

In the case of our plumbing, although PEX is the preferred method, because it was installed 3 years prior to 2010, Universal's Florida Byline agreement says that they do not need cover anyone who has PEX piping before 2010. My question is: WHY WAS THIS NOT ASKED IN THE INITIAL STEPS OF ATTAINING THE CONTRACT? If Florida is the only state with this agreement, logic would tell that a company would make sure that before taking any payments or signing any contracts that this would be an ESSENTIAL question to ask. But I am assuming that this is because the care of the client is valued less than receiving some money until they drop us.

Either way, it is clear to me now that even when we replace our plumbing (that is only 13 years old and working perfectly fine, as stated in our inspection) that we will never again choose Universal Property Insurance Company because of their lack of care and attention to essential details that impact the lives of actual people. I highly recommend that every person look deeply into the regulations surrounding insurance companies, especially if it is your first home that you are buying and are relying on the insurability to confirm the purchase of your otherwise perfectly working home.