the Home insurance crisis They have spread to Florida, where dozens of businesses have been declared bankrupt, forcing hundreds of thousands of families to pay higher premiums or forego insurance coverage.
The home insurance sector, which has been in crisis for several years, deteriorated following the passage of Hurricane Ian, which caused the second largest insured loss in history with losses estimated at between $50,000 million and $65,000 million, according to a Fox Business report.
Amid a complex context in which more than half a dozen personal insurers have already filed for bankruptcy in the past year, another half dozen are ailing and others have just left the state, the Florida governor said, Ron DeSantis, trying to attract more business from private insurance to the state to plug a gaping hole in the policies available to homeowners who are running out of options.
In the absence of affordable home insurance, citizens have had to sign up with the state’s insurer of last resort, Citizens Property Insurance Corp, with policies that can cost up to $6,000 a year and do not include flood protection.
Insurers who have stayed in Florida have tightened their eligibility requirements, in some cases excluding policyholders who did not meet the stricter standards.
The top state public insurer already has more than a million customers because it’s the only option in some parts of the state, and as a result an estimated 12% of Floridians don’t have home insurance, which could pose a big risk being near the start of hurricane season.
Additionally, 9% of statewide insurance claims originate from Florida, and 79% are from home insurance claims.
Under bills passed to deal with the crisis and stabilize the insurance market, the government ended so-called one-way attorney fees, which required insurers to pay plaintiffs when they lost a lawsuit, but not the other way around.
Another major change focuses on fraudulent roof claims, which are possible when homeowners sign their “benefit assignment” to an unscrupulous contractor who will sue for non-existent repairs.