Florida Legislature attempting to fix insurance market

Responding to the devastation wrought by two disastrous storms, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed bills to increase disaster relief and attempt to fix Florida's property insurance market.

"We have taken an all hands on deck approach to cut through bureaucracy to help our communities recover from Hurricanes Ian and Nicole," Gov. DeSantis said in a Dec. 16 press release.

Note: In Volusia County, Ian and Nicole were tropical storms. Disaster relief approved in a special session of the Florida Legislature earmarked $750 million more for the storm recovery. In addition to the relief, Gov. DeSantis also signed property insurance reform intended to stabilize the market, promote competition and increase consumer choice.

"The issues in Florida's property insurance market did not occur overnight and they will not be solved overnight," Gov. DeSantis said. "The historic reforms signed today create an environment which realigns Florida to best practices across the nation."

House Speaker Paul Renner, R-Palm Coast, said the special session was called to tackle the challenges posed in the aftermath of the storms.

"We are all feeling the effects of inflation and rising insurance premiums, so we took action to deliver

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386- consume r driven reforms that expedite the claims process and curb frivolous lawsuits that drive up costs," Rep. Renner said.

The additional disaster relief includes: ·$350 million to support the full local government match for FEMA public assistance ·$150 million for beach re-nourishment ·$100 million to repair and rebuild stormwater and wastewater facilities damaged by the storms ·$150 million to support homeowners and renters "The results of the special session provide Floridians with the peace of mind that they will be able to access a robust insurance market and our local communities will have the financial assistance to recover and rebuild better than ever," Rep. Renner said.

The property insurance reform will: ·Eliminate one-way insurance for property insurance, which is intended to discourage frivolous lawsuits and realign Florida's market to best practices that will promote more market competition in the private insurance industry.

·Enhance the Office of Insurance Regulation's ability to complete market conduct examinations of property insurers after a hurricane to hold insurance companies accountable and prevent abuse of the property appraisal process.

·Reduce timelines for insurers to get payments out the door and back into the hands of policyholders.

·Add funding to provide temporary insurance support to help stabilize the market.

The December action on property insurance expands on measures approved in a previous special session in May and signed by Gov. DeSantis.

At the time, he said it was "the most significant reform to Florida's homeowners insurance market in a generation." The May bill targeted rising insurance rates by modifying structure inspections and financial reserve requirements for condominium associations.

Gov. DeSantis said the bill was pro-consumer to combat rising costs, increase insurance claim transparency and crack down on frivolous lawsuits, which increase costs. The bill in May approved: ·$2 billion in reinsurance relief to benefit policyholders over the next two years.

·$150 million for the My Safe Florida Home Program to provide grants to retrofitting to make homes more hurricane resistant, which can result in lower premiums.

·Prohibiting insurance companies from denying coverage solely based on the age of a roof if the roof is less than 15 years old or if the roof is determined to have at least five years of useful life remaining.

·Requiring insurance companies to provide policyholders with a reasonable explanation if they deny or partially deny a claim and provides consumers with greater access to information during the claim adjustment process.

·Creating a new standard for application of attorney fee multipliers which have been liberally applied, resulting in increased costs to consumers.

·Limiting the assignment of attorney's fees in property insurance cases, which is designed to disincentivize frivolous claims.