TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday signed right into a legislation sweeping property insurance legislation that creates a $2 billion reinsurance fund and rewrites guidelines on protection denials and legal professional charges, in a transfer to stabilize rising prices and insurer losses.
DeSantis, a Republican, introduced the invoice signings in an announcement that known as the package deal “the most significant reforms to Florida’s homeowners insurance market in a generation.”
The signings mark an finish to a particular legislative session on insurance the place lawmakers within the GOP-controlled statehouse authorized the broad measures in three days, with little public enter or skilled evaluation. The Legislature didn’t approve insurance reforms earlier this yr throughout their common assembly interval, which was dominated by intense partisan fights over payments on abortion, sexual orientation and gender id.
In the statehouse, the payments largely moved with bipartisan help, with lawmakers describing the package deal as a significant first step in repairing a market suffering from insurer insolvencies, coverage cancelations and rising insurance prices.
The important level of criticism from Democrats, the minority occasion, was that the legislation doesn’t do sufficient to grant speedy monetary reduction to householders whose premiums have elevated. Republicans acknowledged it might take 12 to 18 months earlier than costs could drop.
“I don’t know what else I can do to lower my insurance,” stated Roni Sterin, an actual property agent in Broward County who stated her insurance prices unexpectedly jumped about $1,500 lately. “Nobody’s helping us.”
The insurance business has had two years of underwriting losses exceeding $1 billion annually and a number of other insurance corporations have gone bancrupt, required midterm cancellations, are in liquidation or have stopped writing new enterprise since 2021, the governor stated in his proclamation calling lawmakers again to the Capitol. The lack of personal insurers has pushed property homeowners to Citizens Property Insurance, a state-run public insurer meant to be a final resort.
The new legal guidelines would create the $2 billion Reinsurance to Assist Policyholders program for insurers to buy insurance to assist insulate themselves from threat. Insurers must cut back policyholders’ charges to entry the state reinsurance fund. It additionally presents grants of as much as $10,000 to outfit houses so they’re much less weak to hurricane harm, if the houses meet sure standards.
The legislation forbids insurers from mechanically denying protection due to a roof’s age if the roof is lower than 15 years previous. Homeowners with roofs 15 years or older could be allowed to get an inspection earlier than insurers deny them protection.
If an inspection reveals {that a} roof has no less than 5 years of life remaining, insurers can’t refuse to situation a coverage solely primarily based on the roof’s age. If a roof is greater than 25% broken however already complies with the state’s 2007 constructing code, it might solely need to be repaired as a substitute of changed below an exemption to the constructing code that the proposed legislation creates.
The legislation additionally seeks to restrict numerous legal professional charges in insurance-related instances, which insurers blame for a lot of the speed will increase for policyholders. Supporters of the legislative package deal have ceaselessly famous that Florida accounted for 9% of all insurance claims filed nationally however practically 80% of all of the property insurance lawsuits.
The package deal additionally features a measure to require that every one condominiums increased than three tales statewide have periodic inspections of their structural integrity, a proposal that got here in response to the Surfside condominium collapse that killed 98 individuals practically a yr in the past.
The payments would permit for extra state oversight so regulators can spot developments, analyze causes and attempt to forestall the long run failure of insurers.