TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — State lawmakers are back in Tallahassee Monday for a special session on property insurance.
The legislative session aimed at addressing problems in the state’s turbulent property insurance market, which has become a crisis in a region vulnerable to damaging hurricanes.
Several issues have contributed to rising insurance rates in the state, including high rates of insurance litigation that drive up premiums and massive underwriting losses for insurance companies that have resulted in insolvency or canceled policies, among other things.
Bob Rickey, with Tampa’s American Integrity Insurance Group, said lawmakers have to do something to bring down soaring costs that have created chaos in the insurance market.
“We sure as hell can control the fraud part in insurance,” Rickey said. “And the average premium in the state of Florida is $3,600. I would say to you at least a third of that premium over the last seven years have developed because of the legal fraud and we’ve got to help homeowners.”
Rickey said he sees a simple solution.
He said insurance companies should mandate roof evaluations along the way, so it’s easy to spot when there’s average wear and tear, which is not covered by homeowners insurance, and when there’s actual damage caused by something like a storm, which is covered.
That would take help from lawmakers to happen, though.
Lawmakers will discuss ways to speed up reimbursements to insurers on hurricane losses, improving accessibility and protecting policyholders from non-renewal, and preventing those fraud claims.
Rickey says these changes can’t come fast enough for Florida homeowners.
“When I’m seeing folks who can’t afford their insurance anymore, the calls I’m getting from homeowners having to decide whether to put food on their table or pay for a couple hundred dollars a month increase in their homeowners insurances, families going without insurance, I shudder at that,” Rickey said.
What to do about Citizens?
Lawmakers could also exact changes to Citizens Property Insurance, a state-backed insurer meant to be a last resort for property owners unable to find private coverage. Amid problems in the state’s market, Citizens Property Insurance has seen policies increase at a rapid rate and is expected to reach over a million policies by the end of the year
The special session comes after lawmakers failed to pass insurance legislation during their regular session, which ended in March and was dominated by partisan rancor over bills dealing with abortion, race and gender and sexual orientation. Separately, lawmakers last month finished another contentious special session on congressional redistricting and legislation to dissolve a private government Walt Disney World controls on its property in the state.
The session is set to run May 23 to May 27.
Information from the Assocaited Press was used in this report.
