Citizens Insurance targets South Florida with steep rate hikes
Meanwhile, the company sought to address concerns about a possible shortage of claims adjusters available for work during hurricanes and other catastrophes. The company's claims chief reminded its
Under the rate hike proposals approved Tuesday by Citizens' board, single-family homeowners in
Average policies in
The rate increases, which must be approved by state insurance regulators, would bring average premiums to
They would follow increases in 2017 of 8.9 percent to 10 percent in most of the tricounty region.
Elsewhere in the state, homeowners in 56 of 67 counties would see rates decrease or remain flat. According to Citizens, 85,490 of 148,315 single-family homes with multiperil coverage are in
The company has been warning about 10 percent rate increases in
Citizens says those abuses stem from third-party restoration contractors in
During the past legislative session, Citizens helped craft bills that would have restricted plaintiffs attorneys from collecting legal fees from insurers when representing contractors under assignment.
"We're not sitting back and saying 'Hey, we'll wait until next year, and maybe we can get something done from a legislative standpoint next year. We can't. We can't wait."
The largest change facing policyholders, creation of a managed repair program, is already approved and scheduled to take effect
Customers could decline to let Citizens' contractors handle either repairs, but in a newly proposed consequence approved by the company's
The water loss cap would take effect
Other coverage changes approved by the board include reducing the number of non-weather water-loss claims from three within three years to one within three years and two within five years.
Third-party contractors would be subject to "duties after loss" required of policyholders, including providing Citizens access to the damaged property and answering questions about the claim under oath.
While
Late last year, Adams terminated contracts of four claims adjustment firms that were obligated to provide 2,441 adjusters. That was because those firms deployed just 297 of 624 adjusters Citizens requested days before Hurricane Matthew impacted the state.
In a contract solicitation sent out in April, the company was hoping to secure commitments for 2,000 catastrophe adjusters, but received just 496 commitments from just 12 firms.
Adams said some of the adjustment firms might have been confused by the company's solicitation, which split the catastrophe contract from its everyday claims adjusting contracts for the first time.
Adams said the company would send out another contract solicitation and talk to companies that did not respond and try to find out why.
He reminded the
After the meeting, Citizens spokesman
[email protected], 954-356-4071, twitter: twitter.com/ronhurtibise
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