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Posted on 12/14/2022 5:47:43 AM PST by devane617
The Florida Senate on Tuesday approved sweeping legislation that would overhaul the state's property insurance system, which has struggled due to insolvencies, high costs and major storms.
The bill would create a $1 billion reinsurance fund, reduce litigation costs and compel some customers to leave a state-created insurer. It also would force insurers to respond more promptly to claims and increase state oversight of insurers’ conduct following hurricanes.
The Republican proposal was put forth during the GOP-led Legislature's second special session this year aimed at stabilizing the state's property insurance market. The state House is expected to give the measure final passage this week.
Florida has struggled to control rising property insurance costs and hold onto insurers in a market where natural disasters weigh heavily on the cost of business. The session comes after Hurricane Ian smashed into the southwest coast in late September and caused an estimated $40 billion to $70 billion in insured losses.
The bill, which builds on insurance legislation passed in May, is not expected to immediately lower rates for policyholders, which has drawn criticism from Democrats. Backers of the bill argue that it is meant to stabilize the market, which then could lower rates in the future.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
The cost of insurance per home owner should cover the costs of claims, plus profits and needed reserves, of the accumulated claims.
Also, Florida is rife with roof replacement fraud, which further hurts that market.
It smells of increased premiums and less coverage- i.e., a huge win for insurers and not the people of Florida. This is by far the biggest issue in Florida. If DeSantis has not helped the little guy, he should be fried. With that said, in Michigan the Dems and Whitmer brought a lousy car insurance law to the state, which hurt the injured/little guy, and it hasn’t slowed her down.
I don’t smell but actually see what looks like a rat.
The bill will establish a $1 billion re insurance fund. Ian produced damages of maybe $70 billion.
The concept of Florida property hurricane damage insurance is fallacious.
Live in Florida. All places family own are more than doubling at renewal.
Self insurance will become more common place since nothing is being done to slow the lawyers and their ‘take-me’ attitudes.
We hear about the bicyclist who hits a car, car driver not at fault, bicycle at fault and yet the lawyers get 1 mil and more from the innocent party.
Reading this shows me that nothing is going to change. They think that eventually things will stabilize. But they really didn’t do anything to help it. giving $1 billion to the insurance companies is just a bandaid. These insurance companies for 10 years didn’t have to pay out anything from about 2006 to 2016 they were making big bucks. now suddenly they have to pay out and they’re crying. What a waste of time for the Florida legislature.
I think half the people in the state got new roofs after Andrew.
Watch out for government compelling taxpayers and premium payers in low risk areas to subsidize those in high risk areas. That’s the socialist way of doing it.
“The bill will establish a $1 billion re insurance fund. Ian produced damages of maybe $70 billion.”
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I noticed that imbalance as well. A drop in the bucket.
As you noted, this would be a re-insurance fund but insurers already have re-insurance policies with other companies to spread out the risk in case of major losses.
Whatever, a lot of structures in Florida are not storm hardened and/or are located in areas subject to massive damage. Just saying.
20 Which means you need more insurance to cover the value.
30 Which means you pay more in insurance premiums.
GOTO 10
If Floridians figure out how to drop out of that loop their home values will become more manageable.
Hurricanes are a certainty.
Ian produced storm surge damaging second floor condos and destroying first floor condos.
Having said that, I go to the opening footage of the CSI Miami TV show. In enhanced colorization, the camera pans over the outer island, across the sound, to depict various canals and other water that has beautiful homes and condos etc right on those waterways.
When the storm surge of even a cat 2 or 3 hurricane hits, the property damage is going to be incomprehensible. The damage from a Cat 4 or 5 will bankrupt all insurers
There just might not be an easy solution. We keep building high rises on the beach all over. Those require closer, denser business providers. Markets, restaurants, etc.
If you are building on the water, knowing our hurricane history, why are we feeling badly for them?
Maybe if we capped claims for new buildings, it would cut down on the riskier building approach?
Or at least come up with a much larger reinsurance pool that is funded by new construction? 2% of the original selling price goes to the pool?
We’re up to 23 million now in population, give or take, and it is not slowing down.
We had Allstate for decades, home, cars, never made a claim, even when we had a little damage from Ivan.
They cancelled us...............
In most cases, “helping the little guy” means forcing the insurance industry to subsidize the irresponsible decisions that have been made related to development standards, flood exposure, building codes, etc.
We lived in Florida for almost 40 years.
Left a little over a year ago. We lived on waterfront and as you can imagine, the insurance premiums were jaw-dropping. Our home had no mortgage on it, but it cost us (annually) almost $30,000+ just to pay property and auto insurance, taxes and utilities.
Auto insurance was also much more expensive. So many people are moving in, traffic is getting unbearable. All of the influx in population resulted in more accidents which brought higher insurance premiums. Our rates in TN (auto) cut our premiums in half. Same with boat insurance.
The two main reasons we moved to Tennessee? (1) insurance premiums, (2) TRAFFIC !!!!
State Farm stopped writing home policies in Florida, due to the state’s issues.
>> It smells of increased premiums and less coverage- i.e., a huge win for insurers and not the people of Florida. This is by far the biggest issue in Florida. If DeSantis has not helped the little guy, he should be fried. <<
I translate this as:
Anything that happens in Florida, I presume will benefit corporations and hurt the little guy.
If nothing happens in Florida, that proves that DeSantis doesn’t care about the little guy.
So no matter what DeSantis does, it’s proof he’s out to screw the little guy.
I live in Florida. I think the big problem here is buildings are not properly designed and built for hurricanes. All the homes should be concrete: poured or block, with concrete roofs, and built-in rolling shutters. The build cost would be higher but the long term cost to repair and insure would be a lot less.
Now that you have left Florida and I presume based on your timing that you sold your house for far more than you bought it for, may I ask:
I don’t believe in 99% of the claims made by climate warriors, including that global warming makes hurricanes stronger or dooms coastal land to flooding from melting glaciers. But whatever the cause of insured disasters in Florida, don’t you think it’s up to those who own high-risk property to pay for that risk? Should people who can’t afford luxurious, waterfront properties pay people who buy such properties when well-identified risks are borne out? If you can’t afford to rebuild your house, or at least share the massive risk of living where that’s a likely necessity, why would you live there?
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