{"id":6914,"date":"2021-02-25T01:45:07","date_gmt":"2021-02-25T07:45:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/american-insurance.one.zysites.com\/blog\/through-the-roof-whats-behind-floridas-soaring-home-insurance-rates\/"},"modified":"2022-08-17T16:09:07","modified_gmt":"2022-08-17T21:09:07","slug":"through-the-roof-whats-behind-floridas-soaring-home-insurance-rates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aipflorida.com\/es\/blog\/through-the-roof-whats-behind-floridas-soaring-home-insurance-rates\/","title":{"rendered":"Through the Roof: What&#8217;s Behind Florida&#8217;s Soaring Home Insurance Rates?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 class=\"article-headline\" style=\"color: #ffffff; margin: 20px 0px 10px;\"><strong style=\"color: #042d4d; font-size: 10pt;\">What You Need To Know<\/strong><\/h1>\n<ul style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px;\">\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none;\">\n<ul style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px;\">\n<li>Insurance Information Institute: Lawsuits filed in Florida against insurers are projected to jump to 150,000 for 2020<\/li>\n<li>Experts blame roofing claims that get people to replace whole roofs<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px;\">\n<li>State Lawmakers looking at tort reform to help fix the problem<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #042d4d; margin: 0px 0px 10px; letter-spacing: 0.6px;\">\n<p style=\"color: #042d4d; margin: 0px 0px 10px; letter-spacing: 0.6px;\">That dream came true after Twing and his wife bought a home in Palm Bay, but it\u2019s a dream that came with an unexpected cost when he received his latest homeowners\u2019 insurance premium estimate.<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #042d4d; margin: 0px 0px 10px; letter-spacing: 0.6px;\">\u201cI was astounded and frustrated. I\u2019m going like, how can you justify a 115% increase on a policy?\u201d said Twing.<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #042d4d; margin: 0px 0px 10px; letter-spacing: 0.6px;\">Twing is far from the only homeowner with sticker shock.<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #042d4d; margin: 0px 0px 10px; letter-spacing: 0.6px;\">\u201cWe are seeing door-to-door solicitation of homeowners throughout Florida, but particularly in Central Florida. It has been rampant over the past couple of years. As a result, that\u2019s driving the number of claims, that\u2019s driving lawsuits when there are disputes between the contractor and insurance company,\u201d says Mark Friedlander, the director of communications for the\u00a0<a style=\"color: #0088ce; background-color: transparent;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.iii.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Insurance Information Institute.<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #042d4d; margin: 0px 0px 10px; letter-spacing: 0.6px;\">Friedlander says these contractors or roofing companies are promising to help homeowners get new roofs for the price of their insurance deductible. When they go up on the roof they may find some issues, but then claim the whole roof needs replacing.<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #042d4d; margin: 0px 0px 10px; letter-spacing: 0.6px;\">Friedlander says this is allowed because of legal precedent.<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #042d4d; margin: 0px 0px 10px; letter-spacing: 0.6px;\">According to the Insurance Information Institute, in 2018, 45,000 lawsuits were filed in Florida against insurers. That number is projected to jump to 150,000 for 2020 and to more than 200,000 in 2021.<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #042d4d; margin: 0px 0px 10px; letter-spacing: 0.6px;\">\u201cYou\u2019ve got insurers who are sinking financially. We\u2019re talking well over $1 billion in underwriting losses for insurers who write primarily policies in Florida,\u201d said Friedlander.<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #042d4d; margin: 0px 0px 10px; letter-spacing: 0.6px;\">Florida Rep. Anthony Sabatini, R-Howey-in-the-Hills, points to two other problems: under current law, Florida homeowners have three years to file a claim. And then there\u2019s what\u2019s known as a contingency fee multiplier, which allows an attorney in Florida receive up to three times his or her regular fee in such cases.<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #042d4d; margin: 0px 0px 10px; letter-spacing: 0.6px;\">\u201cThat all goes in the pocket of the law firm. That doesn\u2019t go to the property owner. That goes all to the attorneys,\u201d said Sabatini.<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #042d4d; margin: 0px 0px 10px; letter-spacing: 0.6px;\">Attorney Amy Boggs, who is also the chair of the property insurance section for the Florida Justice Association, has a different view. She believes the focus should be on roofing companies involved in fraudulent claims.<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #042d4d; margin: 0px 0px 10px; letter-spacing: 0.6px;\">\u201cTake those cases to trial. You\u2019ve got fraud? Great. Get a zero verdict. Get a few of those and the attorneys who are doing that are going to stop,\u201d said Boggs.<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #042d4d; margin: 0px 0px 10px; letter-spacing: 0.6px;\">Three bills set to be introduced during the upcoming Florida legislative session look to tackle these issues:\u00a0<a style=\"color: #0088ce; background-color: transparent;\" href=\"https:\/\/myfloridahouse.gov\/Sections\/Documents\/loaddoc.aspx?FileName=_h0305__.docx&amp;DocumentType=Bill&amp;BillNumber=0305&amp;Session=2021\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">HB 305<\/a>,\u00a0<a style=\"color: #0088ce; background-color: transparent;\" href=\"https:\/\/myfloridahouse.gov\/Sections\/Documents\/loaddoc.aspx?FileName=_s0212__.DOCX&amp;DocumentType=Bill&amp;BillNumber=0212&amp;Session=2021\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">SB 212<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a style=\"color: #0088ce; background-color: transparent;\" href=\"https:\/\/myfloridahouse.gov\/Sections\/Documents\/loaddoc.aspx?FileName=_s0076__.DOCX&amp;DocumentType=Bill&amp;BillNumber=0076&amp;Session=2021\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">SB 76<\/a>, which reforms attorney fees in property insurance cases.<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #042d4d; margin: 0px 0px 10px; letter-spacing: 0.6px;\">\u201cI think you\u2019re going to see double digit rating increases until we pass massive tort reform in the state,\u201d said Sabatini.<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #042d4d; margin: 0px 0px 10px; letter-spacing: 0.6px;\">According to data Spectrum News obtained from the\u00a0<a style=\"color: #0088ce; background-color: transparent;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.floir.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Florida Office of Insurance Regulation<\/a>, in the first nine months of 2020, insurance companies requested dozens of double-digit increases, many of which the state approved.<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #042d4d; margin: 0px 0px 10px; letter-spacing: 0.6px;\">An FOIR spokesperson said litigation and more hurricane-related claims are causing premiums to rise, telling Spectrum News in an email: \u201cThe Florida insurance market is one of the most complex in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #042d4d; margin: 0px 0px 10px; letter-spacing: 0.6px;\">At Ana Regina Myrrha\u2019s insurance agency, double-digit increases led her to hire an additional employee just to handle clients looking for lower premiums.<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #042d4d; margin: 0px 0px 10px; letter-spacing: 0.6px;\">\u201cIt\u2019s like a perfect storm. Everybody is going through financial situations and now you have this hitting you as well,\u201d Myrrha said.<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #042d4d; margin: 0px 0px 10px; letter-spacing: 0.6px;\">When asked whether capping how much insurance companies can raise premiums could help,\u00a0Friedlander said while that sounds good, it\u2019s not that simple.<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #042d4d; margin: 0px 0px 10px; letter-spacing: 0.6px;\">\u201cIt\u2019s reaching a point where insurers can go insolvent. They\u2019ll just go out of business. And that will do further damage to property owners in Florida because now they\u2019ll have less choices,\u201d said Friedlander.<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #042d4d; margin: 0px 0px 10px; letter-spacing: 0.6px;\">It&#8217;s a possibility Ronald Twing hopes lawmakers and the insurance industry can work together to avoid.<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #042d4d; margin: 0px 0px 10px; letter-spacing: 0.6px;\">\u201cI worry about the people that are in a situation who can\u2019t afford this. What is going to happen to these people?\u201d asked Twing.<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #042d4d; margin: 0px 0px 10px; letter-spacing: 0.6px;\">\n<p style=\"color: #042d4d; margin: 0px 0px 10px; letter-spacing: 0.6px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"width: 600px;\" data-src=\"\/img\/~www.aipflorida.com\/DSC_0004.jpg\" alt=\"\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><\/p>\n<h3 style=\"color: #042d4d; margin-top: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px;\"><\/h3>\n<h3 style=\"color: #042d4d; margin-top: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px;\">What to do About Higher Home Insurance Premiums<\/h3>\n<p style=\"color: #042d4d; margin: 0px 0px 10px; letter-spacing: 0.6px;\">So what can you do if you\u2019ve received a much higher premium?<\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #042d4d; margin: 0px 0px 10px; letter-spacing: 0.6px;\">Spectum News asked that question to Ana Regina Myrrha on the video link bellow.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/FukNAY-nxP8\">https:\/\/youtu.be\/FukNAY-nxP8<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"color: #042d4d; margin: 0px 0px 10px; letter-spacing: 0.6px;\">BY STEPHANIE COUEIGNOUX ORLANDO UPDATED 3:31 PM ET FEB. 12, 2021 PUBLISHED 2:34 PM ET FEB. 11, 2021<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What You Need To Know      Insurance Information Institute: Lawsuits filed in Florida against insurers are projected to jump to 150,000 for 2020               Experts blame roofing claims that get people to replace whole roofs          State Lawmaker&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"0","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_analytify_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aipflorida.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aipflorida.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aipflorida.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aipflorida.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aipflorida.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.aipflorida.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6914\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aipflorida.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aipflorida.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aipflorida.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}