By Randy Wilkinson Candidate, FL Senate Dist. 12
Who needs a hurricane to send homeowners insurance rates through the roof when you’ve got your Florida Legislature doing it for you? Leave it to legislators to whip up the perfect storm all by themselves. Hurricanes are normally classified “acts of God” by insurers and they are the main drivers of hefty hikes yet Florida hasn’t had a hurricane make landfall since 2018, perhaps a record. Since then, however, insurance rates have averaged increases of 30%+ annually, even 70% by other estimates. A friend in the insurance business himself told me his home’s rates doubled with another he rents out tripling.
These hikes would be even worse if not for the massive numbers of cancelled policies. Insurance companies lost $1.6 billion in 2021 with several going bankrupt so Florida’s insurance of last resort, Citizen’s has doubled. Citizen’s, which is subsidized by you, carried 420,000 homeowners in 2021, now )it has 800,000 on the way to a million by year’s end. With inflation compounding matters (and Tampa Bay inflation leads the U.S.) God only knows how high they’ll go.
This perfect storm was brewed between 2011-2019 by the Legislature’s passage of these four new laws. 1) Assignment of Benefits (AOB); 2) Mandatory full replacement costs of roofs rather than pro-rated; 3) Multi-year statute of limitations to file first notice of loss; and, 4) One-way attorney’s fees. Regarding the latter, in 2019, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners ( NAIC) 2019 reported that Florida was the only state with one-way attorney fees and blamed that as the main, though not only factor in our skyrocketing rates. At the same time, NAIC reported that though only 8% of homeowner’s claims originated in Florida, a whopping 76% of Homeowner’s Insurance lawsuits in the U.S. were filed in Florida alone! During 2019’s last 3 months, 21,000 lawsuits were filed according to the Florida Department of Financial Services. Of that number, 34 attorneys filed more than 100 apiece, one filing 1,234 lawsuits…and that’s just for 3 months!
Are you starting to get the picture of who’s benefitting most here? Here’s one more clue. Claims data shows that only 8% of damages (payouts) go to homeowners. Insurance company lawyers get 20%, while plaintiff attorneys get a staggering 71%!
Bingo, you’re right! It’s attorneys who are reaping the lion’s share of this harvest of shame. That’s because legislators are in bed with the Tallahassee’s Trial Bar lobby, some say the most influential lobby of all. Needless to say, campaign contributors, too. Legislator’s have swung the door wide open for unscrupulous lawyers and roofers to join forces in pillaging insurance companies and you, the homeowner by way of resulting rate hikes for everyone. With AOB (Assignment of Benefits), homeowner attorneys are hired by, and answerable only to roofers. Unscrupulous roofers who sweep neighborhoods, including one from Citrus County who came to my Polk County door, file suit against the homeowner’s insurance, often without informining the homewowner they planned to do so. Adding insult to injury, some roofers jack up prices beyond legitimate reimbursement and then file liens if homeowners don’t pay up.
So what solutions are necessary to quell this man made hurricane?
The Fix
• Eliminate Assignment of Benefits (A.O.B.) and One Way Attorney Fees legislation especially the provision granting plaintiff attorneys to charge 2 to 2 1/2 their normal hourly rate.
* Allow insurance companies to offer cash value or appreciated claim settlements on roofs older than 10 years.
* Limit the filing period from first notice of loss to one year
* Enact Pre-suit Mediation or alternative dispute resolution modeled after Citizen’s Insurance.
Legislators made two poor half-way stabs at fixing the problems they created in 2019 and 2021. In 2019 they limited AOB’s somewhat which did little but cut their growth rate. Total AOB’s still rose 1% per annum. SB76, last year was detonated, another victim of the Trial Bar Attorney’s lobby, when legislators shrunk back and deleted sections which would’ve limited attorney fee multipliers and would’ve allowed insurers to payout cash value or appreciated claims settlements for roof 10+ years old. It’s crazy that they eliminated those two major provisions and tells you where their interests lie. It’s certainly not with you the public.
Thankfully, Governor DeSantis called the reluctant legislature back for a Homeowner’s Insurance Special Session, next week, May 23-27. Hopefully, with all eyes including yours and mine focused on this issue, legislators will finally get serious.
In case you don’t know, I am running for Florida Senate 12 having served you as School Board Member and County Commissioner between 1994 to 2011. Should you have comments, questions, and/or wish to help, my phone number is (863)934-4890 and my email is [email protected]. For campaign contributions, my mailing address is P.O. Box 2614; Lakeland, FL 33806.