Collapse. Disaster. These are the phrases practically everybody—from the governor to trade analysts to insurance coverage firm CEOs—makes use of to explain the state of the property insurance coverage trade in Florida.
“The non-public residence insurance coverage market in Florida is on a trajectory towards complete collapse,” says Mark Friedlander, the Florida analyst for the Insurance coverage Data Institute. “We’ve by no means seen something like this man-made disaster anyplace else in america. Common Property and Casualty, the biggest non-public insurer in Florida, simply introduced a moratorium on writing new enterprise in a number of Florida counties because of the unstable market. In complete, 13 residence insurers in Florida have stopped writing new enterprise in both components or your complete state since January.”
Right here’s the purpose folks might not wish to hear: Householders in Southwest Florida and elsewhere within the state are partly accountable for what many name a nationwide embarrassment. In keeping with insurance coverage corporations and prosecutors, property insurance coverage corporations are being bled dry by householders, roofers and legal professionals who file frivolous and even fraudulent claims.
Dishonest roofing corporations—not all of them are, in fact—knock on doorways to persuade householders to allow them to examine their roofs at no cost. The roofer finds slightly harm however tells the house owner they may persuade their insurance coverage service to pay for a totally new roof. The roofing firm has the house owner signal what is called an project of advantages, or AOB, in impact signing over the insurance coverage coverage to them.
When the insurance coverage firm refuses to pay, the roofer, armed with a home-owner’s AOB, sics a lawyer on the insurance coverage firm. When the insurance coverage firm caves or loses in courtroom, it pays the corporate for the brand new roof and the plaintiff’s lawyer’s payment. The lawyer usually provides a payment multiplier that may double or triple the award the roofer receives.
“When a home-owner or contractor wins a property declare lawsuit, the courts are allowed to award what’s known as a payment multiplier on prime of the declare fee,” Friedlander says. “All of this extra cash goes to the plaintiff’s legal professional, and the insurance coverage firm is on the hook for all of it.”
How large an issue might or not it’s? “One legal professional alone has filed 10,000 lawsuits towards insurance coverage corporations in Florida,” Friedlander says. “They make thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of {dollars} on these instances.”
The painful course of has been replicating itself for many years round Florida, together with Friedlander’s neighborhood.
“My neighborhood has 750 properties in it,” Friedlander says. “I’d say not less than 500 properties have gotten new roofs, and that’s not an exaggeration. My very own neighbors don’t perceive why their insurance coverage is being canceled or rising by 100%. It’s due to these scams.”
Statistics inform the story
In keeping with the Insurance coverage Data Institute, greater than 116,000 property insurance coverage declare lawsuits had been filed towards insurance coverage corporations in Florida in 2021, in comparison with 20,000 claims in the remainder of the nation.
“We’ve analyzed this—no different state had greater than 1,000 property declare lawsuits filed final 12 months, and in Florida, the claims usually don’t have anything to do with hurricanes or different climate occasions,” Friedlander says.
The state’s property insurers paid out $15 billion in claims prices between 2013 and 2020, in keeping with the institute. Practically three-quarters of these {dollars} went to attorneys. Consequently, insurance coverage carriers have gotten bancrupt.
Right here’s a sampling of property insurance coverage corporations which have declared insolvency or liquidated in Florida in recent times:
• Avatar Property & Casualty Insurance coverage Co. of Tampa
• Gulfstream Property and Casualty Insurance coverage Firm
• Lexington Insurance coverage Co.
• Lighthouse Property Insurance coverage Corp. of Tampa
• Sawgrass Mutual Insurance coverage Firm
• Southern Constancy Insurance coverage Firm in Leon County
• St. Johns Insurance coverage Firm of Orlando
• Sunshine State Insurance coverage Firm
Canceling house owner insurance policies
In the event that they aren’t pulling out of the state altogether, insurance coverage carriers are canceling house owner insurance policies to remain solvent. FedNat Insurance coverage Co., as an illustration, introduced it might cancel 60,000 insurance policies beneath a restructuring plan. As soon as one of many largest insurance coverage carriers within the state, the corporate reported $100 million in losses final 12 months.
“There may be an insurance coverage disaster in Florida, no query,” says Norman Lutz, CEO of Iron Ridge Insurance coverage Providers in Fort Myers. “There may be little or no capability within the market as a result of corporations that went into receivership, and the remaining corporations limiting what they’re keen to put in writing. The few corporations which are left merely don’t have the capability to put in writing extra insurance policies.”
Steve Stewart, the retired president of Florida Gulf Financial institution in Cape Coral, is like some other SWFL house owner in hurricane nation—he can’t go a day with out the fitting property insurance coverage.
When the Florida Workplace of Insurance coverage Regulation declared his long-term insurance coverage service bancrupt in January, the service bought Stewart’s coverage and people of three,200 different clients to a different insurance coverage service. His coverage was nonetheless good, however the brand new service stated they’d renew it after the beginning of hurricane season.
“I known as the brand new firm, they usually stated, ‘We’ll ship you your renewal phrases on the finish of June.’ I requested, ‘Are you able to inform me what the coverage phrases are?’ She stated, ‘I’ve the data, however I can not inform you.’ I had the sensation there can be a big enhance in my price, one thing I used to be not going to love.”
Stewart determined to buy one other service on his personal and located an insurance coverage dealer who might slender his decisions. His dealer obtained a brand new coverage with a price and the protection he likes in time for storm season. He urges householders to analyze choices as an alternative of ready for the service.
It’s necessary you decide up your cellphone and be proactive; no one goes to maintain the patron, besides the patron, he stated.
“Insurance coverage corporations are in enterprise to earn cash. That’s the best way it’s,” Stewart says. “In the event that they have you ever between a rock and a tough place, you’ll get each the rock and the exhausting place.”
And that’s the place far too many owners in Southwest Florida discover themselves.
Writing insurance policies when carriers fail
Chapman Insurance coverage Group, with 5 areas in SWFL—Port Charlotte, Punta Gorda, Cape Coral, Fort Myers, Bonita Springs—is an company that helps householders and enterprise homeowners discover the fitting property insurance coverage with the fitting insurance coverage service.
“We’ve had 5 insurance coverage corporations go into liquidation this 12 months,” Chapman says. “It’s depressing. State regulation offers insurance coverage brokers 30 days to interchange that coverage for the client or they lose protection on that coverage.
“We do our greatest to seek out them a brand new service.” The service retains their coverage cash till the house owner recordsdata for its return. “When the service goes into liquidation, the Florida Insurance coverage Assure Affiliation, or FIGA, steps in to settle claims and refund the insured their premium again,” Chapman says. However there’s a $100 deductible they should pay to get their a reimbursement.
“It’s a heartbreaker,” Chapman says. “You’ll be able to have somebody who renewed his coverage in Could and the service goes bancrupt in June, only a month later, however a few of these misplaced premiums will be paid again by way of FIGA.”
Getting that cash again can take eight to 10 weeks, Chapman stated. In the meantime, the house owner has to put in writing a test for a brand new premium to a different service. If a home-owner has an open declare with the liquidated service, a brand new service isn’t prone to write a coverage for that house owner. “It’s nearly not possible to interchange that coverage when you might have an open declare,” Chapman says.
Burdened to breaking
There’s an alternative choice, however brokers say that possibility can also be wobbling.
Florida residents who discover themselves with out property insurance coverage can go to the state-run Residents Property Insurance coverage Company, or CPIC. This system is funded by policyholder premiums, however state regulation permits CPIC to levy assessments on policyholders if there are catastrophic storms.
In keeping with CPIC spokesman Michael Peltier, the state-run fund doesn’t have sufficient reinsurance protection to fulfill dangers posed by hurricanes, hail storms and different threats to property. Some reinsurers—corporations that present protection when carriers incur extra claims than they’ll pay—are additionally pulling out of the state.
The insurance coverage corporations that may purchase reinsurance “move these bills on to customers, which is among the the reason why Floridians are paying the very best common residence insurance coverage premium within the U.S.,” Friedlander says.
Not solely that, however the state insurance coverage fund is straining beneath the burden of panicked householders, in keeping with Peltier. As an illustration, in June, the primary week of hurricane season, CPIC underwriters had been writing insurance policies at a feverish price of 30,000 a month, and have now handed 900,000 policyholders.
Residents insurance coverage is required to supply an possibility inside 30 days, however the deluge of householders looking for insurance policies makes it not possible to get these property homeowners a brand new coverage. That’s as a result of Residents and FIGA don’t have the sources to get the entire liquidated carriers’ purchasers into their programs, Chapman stated.
“The fuse is burning; after 30 days there isn’t any protection,” he says. “They’re so backed up they aren’t assembly the deadlines to place the data into their programs.”
Banks additionally will put mortgage holders into an insurance coverage program to guard their loans.
“If in case you have a mortgage, you’re going to get force-placed right into a coverage, the financial institution does that,” he says. “The insurance coverage firm can cost what they need and it’s normally outrageous, typically two or 3 times extra. And the coverage isn’t nearly as good.”
Solutions to a decades-long downside?
After noting that his state accounts for simply 9% of the nation’s residence insurance coverage claims however recordsdata 79% of the nation’s property insurance coverage lawsuits, Gov. Ron DeSantis introduced a particular session of the Legislature. The purpose of the session, which lasted from Could 22-27, was to put in writing legal guidelines to appropriate the itemizing property insurance coverage trade and stabilize its future. Bringing down charges will take longer, says state Sen. Jim Boyd, R-Manatee, who led the trouble to put in writing Senate Invoice 2D.
DeSantis signed SB 2D on Could 26, and it turned regulation on July 1. Along with making the submitting of a declare containing false, fraudulent or deceptive data a third-degree felony, the regulation:
• Creates the Reinsurance to Help Policyholders, or RAP, program, which will get $2 billion of reinsurance protection for free of charge to insurers. In return, carriers should scale back charges to policyholders;
• Bars assignees of advantages from amassing legal professional charges, even when they prevail in courtroom;
• Prohibits contractors from inducing a home-owner for the functions of constructing a property insurance coverage declare for roof harm “until the communication supplies sure notices to the house owner”;
• Requires property insurers to ship a replica of any detailed insurer adjuster’s estimate inside seven days of a request by the insured;
• Prohibits project of legal professional charges apart from to a named insured individual or a named beneficiary beneath the coverage;
• Requires {that a} legitimate project of profit specify that the assignee will maintain innocent the assignor from all liabilities, together with legal professional charges;
• Declares legal professional payment multipliers might solely be awarded beneath uncommon and distinctive circumstances; and
• Creates the Property Insurance coverage Stability Unit to extend regulatory oversight for property insurers; the unit additionally will examine every time buyer complaints recommend repeated fraud.
New guidelines for roof substitute within the regulation will add extra protections for householders and insurance coverage corporations, Boyd stated.
“We’re defending householders from being canceled when a roof is lower than 15 years outdated, or when an inspection reveals an older roof nonetheless has loads of useable life left,” he says.
Different reforms not robust sufficient?
In keeping with Friedlander, SB 2D doesn’t completely rid the state of payment multipliers. Although payment multipliers had been eradicated for third-party, or contractor, lawsuits, they nonetheless are allowed for lawsuits filed by householders.
“The Legislature didn’t take robust sufficient actions within the particular session to cease the disaster and this has additional eroded the market,” he says. “Householders signal an AOB type or course to pay settlement that claims the roofing firm has management over the insurance coverage declare. And till they completely eradicate the payment multipliers, AOBs and course to pays, these exorbitant bills will proceed to place insurers getting ready to failure.”
The course to pay agreements, that are just like AOBs, are largely unregulated and do nothing to guard householders, he stated. “Many unscrupulous contractors use a course to pay to keep away from the quite a few rules of an AOB.”
Lutz applauds the constraints placed on assignments of advantages. “This can be a important enchancment and may have a demonstrable affect on Task of Profit abuse and misuse,” he says. “One of many important elements of the change is roof inspectors should adjust to the strict necessities of the AOB statute.”
He additionally likes the adjustments to legal professional payment constructions, eliminating the flexibility of contractors to recuperate legal professional charges in sure instances, limiting legal professional payment multipliers and permitting courts to award insurers their legal professional’s charges for acquiring a dismissal.
Lutz believes SB 2D—by creating oversight and limiting large paydays to legal professionals and roofers—will in time create stability that may draw major insurance coverage carriers again to the state. However it gained’t be in a single day. “Modifications usually are not going to be noticeable tomorrow; it is going to take years to appropriate a uncared for system,” Lutz says.
“As soon as we alter the panorama, insurance coverage corporations will carry again capital, which creates capability, which brings competitors. Which will create circumstances for a sturdy, wholesome insurance coverage market.”
Hurricane Ian: Testing floor for SB 2D reforms
Hurricane Ian leveled Sanibel Island and Fort Myers simply 120 days after the Florida Legislature handed a regulation designed to reform the state’s property insurance coverage trade.
The catastrophic storm, which destroyed tens of hundreds of condos, properties and companies, is now a testbed for the brand new relationship SB 2D created amongst property homeowners, insurers, legal professionals and contractors.
The flood of property insurance coverage claims began the morning after the storm hit.
Earlier than householders might discover somebody with a ship to take them again to Sanibel to test on their properties, Florida Chief Monetary Officer Jimmy Patronis arrange an preliminary fee middle in Fort Myers. Policyholders might meet in individual with their insurance coverage representatives and file their claims.
Brian Chapman Jr., proprietor of Chapman Insurance coverage Group, has 30,000 clients, many on Sanibel Island, Fort Myers Seashore and inland of the Intracoastal Waterway. The day after Ian hit, his workplaces had been seeing 15 calls a minute from clients who had main harm or misplaced properties. The identical scene performed out at different insurance coverage corporations across the area.
SB 2D is designed to staunch the circulate of exiting insurance coverage corporations. In keeping with Chapman, lots of property homeowners misplaced protection when insurance coverage corporations declared insolvency in 2022. Due to this fact, many owners had been between property insurance coverage carriers earlier than Ian hit.
“We’ve had 5 insurance coverage corporations go into liquidation this 12 months,” Chapman says. “It’s depressing. State regulation offers insurance coverage brokers 30 days to interchange that coverage for the client or they lose protection on that coverage.”
If a home-owner has an open declare with the liquidated service, a brand new service isn’t prone to write a coverage for that house owner. “It’s nearly not possible to interchange that coverage when you might have an open declare,” Chapman says.
Chapman, who was interviewed on CBS’ “60 Minutes” Oct. 9, informed correspondent Invoice Whitaker many must promote and transfer on.
“It’s going to be an extended highway to restoration,” Chapman says. “Those that forewent insurance coverage, I’m sure there might be some who promote their actual property or their land.”
Insurance coverage carriers must decide whether or not wind or water was the first trigger of harm to every property, a posh course of, Chapman informed “60 Minutes.”
“You could have two insurance policies, one flood, one wind,” he says. “Did the wind harm occur first, or the water rise [first]? Was there wind harm earlier than it flooded? It’s exhausting to know the reply to that query.”
Mark Friedlander, the Florida analyst for the Insurance coverage Data Institute, says disputes over wind vs. water destruction might result in authorized disputes that would lead different insurers to go away the state.
“These authorized disputes might amass $10 (billion) to $20 billion in litigation prices as householders sue their insurers over denied claims—significantly determinations between windstorm and flood losses,” he says. “These litigation bills will more than likely result in the insolvencies of a number of extra small, regional Florida residential insurers that had been already struggling financially.”
Friedlander says Ian’s prices might wipe out a fund the brand new insurance coverage regulation created that props up insurance coverage corporations.
“The one affect … Hurricane Ian may have on the SB D2 reform invoice is the $2 billion Reinsurance to Help Policyholders, or RAP, Fund,” he says. “We anticipate that fund to be shortly depleted based mostly on the excessive quantity of insured losses from Ian.”