![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/randy-wilkinson.jpg?resize=279%2C279&ssl=1\")
Who needs a hurricane to send homeowners insurance rates through the roof when you\u2019ve 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 \u201cacts of God\u201d by insurers and they are the main drivers of hefty hikes yet Florida hasn\u2019t 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\u2019s rates doubled with another he rents out tripling. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\u2019s insurance of last resort, Citizen\u2019s has doubled. Citizen\u2019s, which is subsidized by you, carried 420,000 homeowners in 2021, now )it has 800,000 on the way to a million by year\u2019s end. With inflation compounding matters (and Tampa Bay inflation leads the U.S.) God only knows how high they\u2019ll go. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This perfect storm was brewed between 2011-2019 by the Legislature\u2019s 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\u2019s 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\u2019s claims originated in Florida, a whopping 76% of Homeowner\u2019s Insurance lawsuits in the U.S. were filed in Florida alone! During 2019\u2019s 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\u2019s just for 3 months!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Are you starting to get the picture of who\u2019s benefitting most here? Here\u2019s 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%! <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bingo, you\u2019re right! It\u2019s attorneys who are reaping the lion\u2019s share of this harvest of shame. That\u2019s because legislators are in bed with the Tallahassee\u2019s Trial Bar lobby, some say the most influential lobby of all. Needless to say, campaign contributors, too. Legislator\u2019s 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\u2019s 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\u2019t pay up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So what solutions are necessary to quell this man made hurricane?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Fix<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2022 <\/strong>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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n *<\/strong> Allow insurance companies to offer cash value or appreciated claim settlements on roofs older than 10 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n * <\/strong>Limit the filing period from first notice of loss to one year<\/p>\n\n\n\n * <\/strong>Enact Pre-suit Mediation or alternative dispute resolution modeled after Citizen\u2019s Insurance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Legislators made two poor half-way stabs at fixing the problems they created in 2019 and 2021. In 2019 they limited AOB\u2019s somewhat which did little but cut their growth rate. Total AOB\u2019s still rose 1% per annum. SB76, last year was detonated, another victim of the Trial Bar Attorney\u2019s lobby, when legislators shrunk back and deleted sections which would\u2019ve limited attorney fee multipliers and would\u2019ve allowed insurers to payout cash value or appreciated claims settlements for roof 10+ years old. It\u2019s crazy that they eliminated those two major provisions and tells you where their interests lie. It\u2019s certainly not with you the public.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thankfully, Governor DeSantis called the reluctant legislature back for a Homeowner\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n