The pipe that costs you your policy

Look under a sink for dull gray pipe joined with a crimped metal band, and check for a PB2110 stamp near the water heater or main shut off. Homes built between 1978 and 1995 are the ones at risk.

Carriers will not write a new policy on a poly-B home. Citizens, the state backed insurer, says in its published answer 1713 (last updated January 26, 2026) that new business risks over 20 years old with polybutylene piping are not insurable, and polybutylene has not gone into a house since the mid 1990s. At renewal a four point inspection records your pipe type, and if a policy is not renewed Florida law requires 120 days written notice with the reason on it.

Most single family homes are done in two to four days. You keep water overnight on all but one of those days.

We cut as few access holes as possible and tell you before any cut. Patch and texture is quoted with the job so there is no second contractor to chase.

It turns on the age of the house, and Citizens publishes both halves of the answer. The Citizens Personal Lines Bulletin of April 28, 2022 carries Rule 206.B: new business risks over twenty years old with polybutylene piping are not insurable. Citizens' published answer 1713 adds the other half: a dwelling twenty years old or newer with polybutylene may be eligible if there are no signs of leaks, unrepaired water damage, disrepair or hazards. Both apply to the HO-3, HO-8, DP-1, DP-3, MHO-3 and MDP-1 forms. In practice almost every Florida home with polybutylene is already past twenty years old, because the pipe stopped going into new homes in 1995.

A four point inspection does not pass or fail your plumbing. It records it. Citizens' sample 4-point inspection form, Insp4pt 03 25 has a Plumbing System section where the inspector checks the pipe type from eight options: copper, PEX, PVC or CPVC, galvanized, cast iron, polybutylene, ABS, or other. Polybutylene is one of the boxes. What a carrier does with that box is an underwriting decision rather than the inspector's. Two things worth knowing about that form: it says plainly that it is not the required form and that any other report has to carry at least the same level of detail to be acceptable, and it has to be completed, signed and dated by a Florida licensed inspector.

No. The settlement was Cox v. Shell Oil Company in the Chancery Court for Obion County, Tennessee, entered on November 17, 1995 at $1.103 billion, and it covered pipe installed between January 1, 1978 and July 31, 1995. Per the settlement's own legal notice, claims had to be filed by May 1, 2009. That deadline is long past, which is why the insurance question matters more now than the lawsuit question: a replacement today is a homeowner expense.