Florida homeowners, not insurers, the real insurance-crisis victims. But do lawmakers care? | Opinion [Miami Herald]

Miami Herald (FL)

We, South Florida homeowners, carry high deductibles and pay astronomical rates for property insurance — the highest in the country, three times the national average.

We, the overcharged, invest thousands of our hard-earned dollars in storm-proof windows and doors, shutters, plus whatever else comes on the market promising to make our homes and businesses safer.

If we’re lucky, like I seem to be this year when others around the state have been unceremoniously dumped by their insurers after hurricanes Ian and Nicole, we get renewal packages.

No claims have ever been paid me. I’ve been a Florida homeowner since 1984, and all I’ve asked from my insurer was a roof inspection after Hurricane Irma that amounted to $750 worth of loose tiles I fixed and sealed. But — surprise! — my 2023 hurricane deductible is up to a whopping $21,985.

That’s more than what a shingle roof costs in parts of Florida — and it renders my policy pretty useless unless a catastrophic Category 5 hurricane like Ian ravages my landlocked, northwest Miami-Dade neighborhood.

I also didn’t get any credit for my $35,000 investment in storm-proof windows and doors. The excuse: I was already getting a discount for aluminum shutters.

There’s a huge difference in risk when protection is built in versus shutters one puts up when a hurricane is headed this way. Plus, my windows and doors now have double protection since I can add the shutters in case of a direct hit. I also don’t get credit for the ear-piercing smoke alarms all over the house. Another lame excuse: not connected to a monitoring service.

But there’s no arguing with an insurer — and no legislator in Tallahassee willing to stand up for me or you.

The only ones interested in the consumer side of the insurance conversation are Democrats, and they’re a minority party — and shrinking — in red Florida. They had little power last season and none now that voters have spoken.

READ MORE: Florida legislators work on property insurance but warn there aren’t quick, easy fixes

Special insurance session

So, we’re at the mercy of insurers — and that’s exactly where the special legislative session called by Gov. Ron DeSantis is leaving us, in their hands, neglected once more.

In their misguided effort to act only in favor of an industry claiming to be in crisis, Florida lawmakers have left out of this week’s session the most critical part of the property-insurance equation: the customers.

All the bills being considered are aimed at protecting the insurance industry — not us. We’re supposed to wait until lower rates miraculously trickle down from the political theater in Tallahassee.

In fact, one bill’s plan to fix the insurance market is to protect insurers — from us, their vulnerable victims.

Yep, the freedom-spouting Republican-dominated Legislature and the governor are poised to take away a vital homeowner right: the ability to sue insurance companies that won’t pay out legitimate claims.

It’s egregious punishment for Floridians who aren’t committing fraud, only seeking what’s theirs to claim. Without this right, property owners are left with no leverage. And insurance companies are notorious for playing hardball.

I once helped my elderly parents with a straightforward, post-hurricane roof claim after their insurer, State Farm, denied them coverage. It only got resolved after I told their adjuster: “They’ve paid you since they bought this house in the 1970s. You do right by them, or I’ll hire an attorney.”

Soon after the payout, State Farm canceled them. The service lasted as long as they could collect — and only collect.

So before you fire the lawyers, think it through, lawmakers.

All of Florida affected

After all, it’s not only South Florida getting fleeced anymore.

About a month ago, a longtime insurer canceled the policy of a friend with a beach house in Northeast Florida. All his possessions were bundled for big discounts: home, cars, boat.

He was enraged at the prospect of a split.

“We don’t even remember what bundling is in South Florida,” I consoled him. “Welcome to the club and to Citizens, your last-resort insurer, now needed by a lot of people.”

No, I don’t wish higher rates on anyone. But South Florida has been gratuitously assigned the highest rates in the state when everyone is almost equally at risk, as this hurricane season proved.

We were spared, but even Central Florida got smacked.

Legislators have the power to influence insurance regulation, but they’ve been shortchanging Miami-Dade since deadly Hurricane Andrew devastated poorly built South Dade communities in 1992. As a result of the damage — and a Herald investigation proving less-than-stringent codes were largely responsible — we instituted the strictest building code in the state.

Other at-risk counties haven’t done so.

Yet, here we are, still paying significantly disproportionate rates when our homes are the sturdiest.

Miami-Dade Republicans should stand up for us and insist on fairer pricing, but they won’t.

That would threaten the conservative North-South alliance through which they get funded, elected, assigned better offices without rats (unlike the newbie Dems) and rewarded with appointments to prestigious committees and leadership posts.

They’re followers and, as with everything DeSantis mandates, this special session is largely scripted, a done deal in which there’s no room for consumer voices.

But, y’all voted for them, so ride that tall, red wave.