With simply two days left within the 2022 Florida legislative session, a complete property insurance coverage reform invoice seems to be lifeless. However lawmakers have been stated to be working Wednesday and Thursday to fold a few of the primary provisions into one other invoice because the clock winds down.
Senate Invoice 1728 would have made many adjustments that insurers have requested for, together with steps to stem losses from roof claims, solicitation by roofers, and extreme litigation. Most importantly, it will have allowed extra insurance policies to cowl solely the precise money worth, or depreciated worth, of roofs, and would have allowed insurance policies to have a 2% roof-only deductible.
The invoice, by state Sen. Jim Boyd, R-Bradenton, handed the Senate final week however stalled in a Home committee, successfully dooming it for this yr, in accordance with lobbyists and information experiences.
However that will not be the tip for reforms. Home and Senate members have been contemplating including extra of SB 1728’s provisions into what’s been known as the “omnibus insurance coverage invoice,” SB 468, sponsored by Sen. Keith Perry, R-Gainesville. That piece of laws, which already lined a variety of comparatively minor adjustments to insurance coverage and employees’ compensation issues, handed the Senate in February. It was amended on the Home flooring on Tuesday.
“I believe the Home was considering that relatively than have an omnibus invoice and a property insurance coverage invoice, they might have one omnibus invoice,” stated Kyle Ulrich, president of the Florida Affiliation of Insurance coverage Brokers.
However the modification to SB 468 didn’t embody the roof-replacement provisions, and it’s unsure if lawmakers will take into account additional adjustments to that invoice or others right now or Friday.
“There’s nonetheless a path ahead,” Ulrich stated. “It’s as much as the legislative management now.”
A workers member for Boyd stated Wednesday night that it wasn’t clear if the reforms would make it this yr. “We’re carefully monitoring issues,” stated Jack Rogers, legislative assistant to Boyd.
The modification to SB 468, would, amongst different adjustments, drive extra policyholders to change from the state-backed Residents Property Insurance coverage Corp. to different carriers, a part of an effort to stem the fast progress of Residents and keep away from large prices to the state if a number of catastrophes strike Florida.
The amendment, provided by Rep. Tommy Gregory, R-Sarasota, would arrange a schedule that’s extra extreme than what different payments have proposed: If non-public insurers make home-owner take-out gives with premiums which might be solely barely larger than Residents’ for comparable protection, the policyholder would now not be eligible for renewal with Residents. The schedule ranges from 4% larger premiums in 2023 to twenty% larger in 2027 and thereafter.
Insurance coverage teams are nonetheless hopeful {that a} last-minute deal could be brokered so as to add roof and different provisions to SB 468 or different payments nonetheless pending.
“I’ve to consider they’re going to attempt to determine one thing out,” stated B.G. Murphy, director of presidency affairs for FAIA. “Nothing’s lifeless till the hanky drops.”
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