Florida’s new insurance coverage regulation will harm house homeowners

Florida’s new property insurance coverage laws doesn’t decrease charges, encourages insurance coverage corporations to delay and underpay claims and makes it far more costly for Florida seniors and companies to power wrongful performing insurance coverage corporations to pay what’s owed.

Whereas Florida’s lawmakers and the governor definitely wish to decrease insurance coverage prices, stabilize the insurance coverage market and improve shopper protections in order that Florida’s policyholders can depend on immediate and full fee following catastrophes, SB 76 does none of these items.

Most insurance coverage legal guidelines are pretty comparable all through the nation. Mannequin property insurance coverage laws with small variations is made by the Nationwide Affiliation of Insurance coverage Commissioners. It usually takes years of research and debate earlier than these steered mannequin legal guidelines are accepted as a result of insurance coverage regulation may be very technical.

The language present in Florida SB 76 was unexpectedly drafted. It has outlined new insurance coverage phrases of artwork discovered nowhere else and which make little sense. They appear to create new necessities and roadblocks for policyholders with professional claims to receives a commission. Worse, the brand new laws permits the absurd state of affairs of an insurer agreeing that an merchandise of injury could be owed, however due to these new refined authorized technicalities, doesn’t need to be paid.

From discussions with many legislators, the failings on this laws was not their intent. Aside from legislators in mattress with the insurance coverage business, most wished to cease fraudulent roof claims and spurious litigation of these claims. Within the haste and strain to do one thing about these issues, SB 76 harms policyholders with professional claims who aren’t being handled correctly by their insurance coverage corporations.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to determine it’s much more worthwhile for insurance coverage corporations to take individuals’s premium {dollars} and never pay for what’s owed. SB 76 encourages extra of this wrongful exercise and in the long term, will create extra litigation albeit on the value to the harmless policyholder who simply wished a good fee of a declare.

Chip Merlin is founder and president of the Merlin Legislation Group in Tampa, which has now grown to a nationwide regulation agency. Merlin represents and advocates for insurance coverage policyholders in disputes with their very own insurance coverage corporations.