RED STATE INSURANCE CRISIS: "Allstate Dumps Shithole State FLORIDUH Blame DeSantis Global Warming Lies

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>Insurance giant Allstate has stopped writing new policies

Looks like Florida is on the chopping block too.  But only because it's 
inhabited by ignorant right wing scumbags who rape their own kin when 
they're not stealing money and sending it to the fat deviant pervert child 
molester DeSantis or felony defendant Trump.

Can lawmakers save the collapsing Florida home insurance market?

The Florida home insurance market has spent most of 2022 tumbling toward 
collapse, but recent legislation just might avert disaster. Bankrate dug 
deep into the Florida insurance industry to discover the cause of the 
problem and to report on the proposed solutions. We can help you understand 
why the Florida home insurance crisis is happening and your options if you 
receive a cancellation or nonrenewal notice on your homeowners insurance 
policy.

The crisis in the Florida insurance market

Florida has always been a complex home insurance market, but recent issues 
are pushing the state’s market to the point of collapse. Since 2017, six 
property and casualty companies that offered homeowners insurance in 
Florida liquidated. Five more are in the liquidation process in 2022. Other 
insurance companies are voluntarily leaving the state. Even more are 
choosing to nonrenew swaths of home insurance policies, drastically tighten 
their policy eligibility requirements or request substantial rate 
increases.

For Florida homeowners, this is resulting in fewer home insurance companies 
and increased premiums. When a company goes insolvent, the Florida 
Insurance Guaranty Association (FIGA) takes on any claims that still need 
to be paid by that company. In late August, FIGA’s board and the Florida 
Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) approved a .7 percent assessment to 
help cover the costs of open claims associated with the liquidated 
companies. That’s the second assessment this year, with a 1.3 percent 
assessment approved in March. Homeowners will pay these fees regardless of 
the insurance company they are with.

According to Logan McFaddin, Vice President of State Government Relations 
at the American Property Casualty Insurance Association,

Florida’s Insurance Consumer Advocate (ICA) Tasha Carter agrees, saying, 
“Homeowners insurance options in Florida have become more and more limited, 
and consumers are facing dire consequences.”

Why are home insurance companies leaving Florida?

Florida insurers are canceling policies, leaving the state or liquidating 
at a rapid pace. Why? What is behind these companies’ aversion to insuring 
Florida homes?

Florida has always presented a risky market to home insurance companies due 
to the high threat of widespread weather-related damage, but the current 
crisis is caused by a number of factors reaching a boiling point at the 
same time.
Insurance fraud in Florida

The biggest issue right now in Florida is home insurance fraud, driven by 
fraudulent roofing claims. A proclamation from the office of Governor Ron 
DeSantis notes that, although Florida only accounts for 9 percent of the 
country’s home insurance claims, it is home to 79 percent of the country’s 
home insurance lawsuits. Many of these lawsuits are fraudulent. ICA Carter 
explains how the scams generally work:

    First, roofers canvas neighborhoods and offer inspections to 
unsuspecting homeowners. These contractors inevitably “find damage” on the 
roof and often promise a “free roof” to the homeowner, claiming they can 
have the home insurance deductible waived.
    Homeowners are pressured to sign an assignment of benefits form, giving 
contractors the right to file an insurance claim on their behalf.
    A claims adjuster from the insurance company inspects the alleged 
damage. The adjuster either finds no damage or far more minimal damage than 
the contractor found, and the claim payout is less than what the contractor 
demanded.
    The contractor brings legal action against the insurance company, 
demanding a claim payout for the contractor’s original quote. Remember, the 
homeowner signed the benefits of the policy to the contractor, so the 
contractor doesn’t need the homeowner’s permission to do this.
    The insurance company now has a choice: it can pay the legal costs to 
fight the lawsuit or pay the costs to settle out of court. Either way, the 
insurance company loses money due to the legal action.

ICA Carter notes that “these schemes are real and are happening more 
frequently,” which puts more and more financial pressure on insurance 
companies, especially in a state with high claims costs due to weather-
related events.

According to Mark Friedlander, Director of Corporate Communications at the 
Insurance Information Institute, “Florida property insurers are projected 
to post a cumulative underwriting loss of $1.7 billion for 2021” due to 
these runaway litigation costs. The governor’s office reports that, for two 
consecutive years, net underwriting losses have exceeded $1 billion. It’s 
no wonder that so many companies are going insolvent or leaving the state 
before they reach that point.

On top of that, Florida also previously had a “one-way attorney fee” 
system. This meant that, when a court ruled in favor of the plaintiff (in 
this case, a home insurance policyholder or the third-party contractor who 
filed the claim), the defendant (in this case, the insurance company) was 
responsible for paying the plaintiff’s attorney fees. So not only were 
insurers paying for fraudulent lawsuits, they were also paying for the 
fraudster’s legal costs. Friedlander notes that the insurance reform bill 
passed in December 2022 “addresses the two root causes of Florida’s 
residential insurance crisis — litigation abuse and assignment of benefits 
(AOB) abuse…Eliminating both is necessary to slow down the mass volume of 
lawsuits being filed against Florida insurers.” Going forward, assignment 
of benefits forms are banned for home insurance losses and Florida will no 
longer operate a one-way attorney fee system.
Roof age

Instead of leaving altogether, some companies are tightening their 
underwriting restrictions to lessen the risk of these scams. This may be 
the reason why several companies — including Southern Fidelity, Progressive 
and Universal — have chosen to continue operations in Florida but have 
nonrenewed tens of thousands of policies.

However, companies are now prohibited from denying coverage solely based on 
roof age if the roof is fewer than 15 years old and has a life expectancy 
of five years at the time the policy is issued. That said, insurers will 
have to decide if they are comfortable with these restrictions or if they 
will continue leaving Florida.
Storm risk

Risk will always be a consideration for home insurance companies in 
Florida. The state’s shape and geographic location mean that it could get 
hit from either side by a hurricane. Because the peninsula is so thin, even 
homes in the interior counties aren’t entirely protected.

To make matters worse, fraudulent claims may be more common after severe 
storms — and storms are not uncommon in the state. Hurricane Ian made 
landfall on September 28 as a powerful Category 4 storm, causing widespread 
damage. The damage and financial fallout could push the already-teetering 
home insurance market into collapse due to increased home repair expenses, 
including the potential of fraudulent roof claims.

However, although the risk of hurricane damage complicates things, it isn’t 
what’s driving the market to the brink of collapse. After all, other risky 
states don’t have this problem. A high likelihood of damage generally means 
paying a higher premium to offset that risk, but coverage is usually still 
available. Oklahoma, for example, has the highest average cost of home 
insurance in the nation at $3,593 per year for $250K dwelling coverage due 
to the likelihood of tornado damage, but homeowners in the state don’t face 
the same difficulty finding coverage that Floridians do.

Is anything being done to curb the crisis?

Yes, although the full effects of the measures have yet to be seen. Senate 
Bill 76 went into effect in July 2021 and included several provisions to 
curb fraudulent claims causing insurers so much strain. One such provision 
is aimed at reducing the solicitation tactics that fraudulent contractors 
often use at the start of a scam. While this legal measure may help solve 
the problem, Sean Harper, CEO of Kin Insurance, warns that “there will need 
to be additional action taken to restore the market to health.”

Florida lawmakers met for a special session from May 23 through May 27. The 
Legislature passed an insurance reform bill that includes several 
provisions to help slow the spiral of the market. The provisions included 
setting up the My Safe Florida Home Program, which provides grants to help 
Florida homeowners strengthen their homes against damage. Additionally, 
home insurance companies will not be able to deny coverage for homes solely 
based on roof age if a roof is less than 15 years old and still has five 
years of useful life left (older roofs may still be denied as they present 
a high risk of damage). Finally, lawyers will be restricted in the rates 
they can charge for property insurance claims cases, hopefully discouraging 
fraudulent lawsuits and decreasing litigation costs.