The Florida Home of Representatives’ Commerce Committee handed no fewer than 5 payments Wednesday that might have an effect on property and casualty insurance coverage, from permitting surplus strains carriers to be primarily based in Florida, to encouraging extra take-outs of Residents Property Insurance coverage insurance policies.
House Bill 951 would, for the primary time, permit Florida-based surplus strains insurers to promote surplus insurance policies in Florida. An identical invoice has met with little opposition within the Senate, however HB 951 bumped into some sudden criticism within the Home committee.
The invoice’s sponsor, Rep. Tommy Gregory, R-Bradenton, and different supporters have stated the measure would assist Florida’s more and more distressed property insurance coverage market by giving industrial property house owners and householders extra corporations to select from. However Hillary Cassel, an legal professional with the Florida Policyholders Cooperative, identified that as a result of surplus strains should not topic to the identical Florida laws as home P/C carriers are, lots of them require policyholders to settle disputes via arbitration in out-of-state venues.
“That is going to supply an avenue for carriers within the state to open up a separate ebook of enterprise, which is nice, contemplating the state of {the marketplace},” Cassel stated. “However we wish to ensure that there are some extra client protections in order that householders and enterprise house owners on this state aren’t compelled to resolve a dispute out of the state of Florida and permit different states’ legal guidelines to use.”
Rep. Michael Grieco, D-Miami, agreed, quoting social media memes about different points. “I don’t know why we’d wish to ‘New York our Florida,’” he stated.
Rep. Charles Clemons, R-Cross Metropolis, stated that in mild of the insurance coverage disaster within the state, most policyholders would perceive the caveats, particularly since some folks could not have the ability to discover insurance coverage in any other case.
The committee voted overwhelmingly to approve the invoice.
HB 1307, additionally by Rep. Gregory, would make a variety of modifications to the way in which Residents, the state-backed insurer of final resort, does enterprise. For starters, the invoice would make Residents policyholders ineligible for renewal if different insurers supplied premiums which are solely barely greater – beginning at 5% greater in 2023 and climbing to twenty% by 2026.
The unique invoice would have stiffened the necessities that Residents officers and board members have insurance coverage business expertise, however that was eliminated in an modification to the invoice Wednesday.
HB 1307 additionally would require state regulators to approve the tactic Residents makes use of to worth dwelling substitute prices; would enhance a surcharge positioned on insurance policies because the variety of insurance policies grows. The variety of Residents policyholders is on observe to high 1 million by yr’s finish, as different insurers withdraw from the market and Residents’ premiums stay decrease than different carriers in lots of instances. That places taxpayers in danger if main disasters hit the state.
Lawmakers and others have advocated for methods to scale back the company’s publicity. The surcharge would assist discourage policyholders by rising to 25% of the premium if Residents reaches 1.5 million policyholders, in line with the invoice.
Gregory warned that with out the modifications, Residents may quickly grow to be the insurer, not of final resort, however of “solely” resort for many Floridians.
HB 749, by Clemons, would enhance penalties for unlicensed public adjusters who violate the legislation; would require dwelling and auto guarantee corporations to supply their full enterprise identify and license quantity; will permit digital driver licenses and would require that digital driver info embrace insurance coverage protection information; and would notify drivers of lapses in protection.
The invoice additionally would let the Division of Monetary Companies positive insurers as much as $2,000 per day in the event that they fail to adjust to investigations of insurance coverage fraud.
Florida’s chief monetary officer, Jimmy Patronis, applauded the passage of the invoice, which now goes to the Home flooring.
HB 503, additionally by Gregory, would make modifications to a variety of applications. These embrace modifications to when a collateral-protection insurance coverage coverage is eligible for Florida Hurricane Disaster Fund protection; permits Residents to insure some condominiums via industrial wind-only insurance policies; and permits smaller building corporations to keep away from annual audits by employees’ compensation insurers.
HB 837 would divert some cash from the disaster fund for use for hurricane preparedness, dwelling wind-mitigation enhancements, shelter building and different tasks.
The committee approval signifies that a lot of the payments will now head to the Home flooring for a vote. Related payments are making their method via Senate committees. Lawmakers have till March 11, the final day of the 2022 session.
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