Check out the new laws by the 2011 Florida Legislature that affect the insurance industry
2011 Florida Legislature
Florida Insurance Law Changes
Florida Senate Bill 408 was passed and recently signed by Florida Governor Scott. The Senate Bill has some significant changes that affect homeowners and public adjusters as it relates to Florida homeowner insurance claims. The highlights of the new Florida insurance law are:
Time Limits for Making Florida Insurance Claims
- A time limit for homeowners to make hurricane/windstorm or sinkhole claims with the insurer. If the homeowner does not make the claim in time with the insurer, the claim is waived and/or barred. The time limit for hurricane/windstorms is three-years from the date the hurricane made landfall or the windstorm caused the damage. For the purposes of a sinkhole, the time limit is two-years after the homeowner knew or should have reasonably known about the sinkhole.
- A time limit for homeowners to bring a lawsuit for breach of the insurance contract is now five-years from the date of loss, not five-years from the breach of the contract.
Florida Public Adjuster Fees, Contracts and Advertising
- Limits the fee that a Public Adjuster may charge a homeowner for assisting with an insurance claim to 20% of the claim payment.
- Limits the fee that a Public Adjuster may charge a homeowner for assisting with an insurance claim to 10% of the claim payment if an emergency is declared by the Florida Governor.
- Limits the fee that a Public Adjuster may charge a homeowner for assisting with an insurance claim to 10% of the additional amount paid by Citizens Property Insurance Corporation over what Citizens originally offerred on the claim.
- Requirement that a Public Adjuster add the following disclaimer in bold print and capital letters in a typeface no smaller than what is used in the body of the advertisement:
- The Public Adjuster must provide the homeowner with a written estimate of the loss, must make it available to the insurer if requested, and keep a copy of the written estimate for at least five-years.
- The Public Adjuster must provide prompt notice to the insurer that the Public Adjuster is handling the claim on behalf of the homeowner. The Public Adjuster must provide a copy of his/her contract with the homeowner to the insurer and ensure that the insurer has access to the property and homeowner to conduct its investigation.
- A licensed contractor must be licensed as a Public Adjuster in order to adjust a claim on behalf of a homeowner.
Florida Consumer Advocate Report Card
- The Florida Consumer Advocate Report Card was repealed and is no longer required. The annual report card graded all Florida insurers on the basis of complaints, claim payments and how fast those payments were made.
Summary and Analysis
There are many more changes, the foregoing only represent to the author the most important. You may also be interested in the Senate Bill Summary or the full text of Senate Bill 408. As is evident from the above, it seems that the changes weigh heavily in favor of the insurer and against insurance claimants. This apparent pro-insurance industry bill after all limits the times to make claims, file lawsuits and heavily regulates those that would assist homeowners with their claims against the insurance companies. We will have to wait and see if these new Florida laws will embolden Florida insurance companies to become even more aggressive in denying claims. In either event, it is becoming clearer that Florida homeowners are going to need a Florida insurance lawyer on their side if they hope to compete against the insurance company and its legion of adjusters and the lawyers who defend them.
Related Topics:
- Florida insurance law
- Florida insurance claims
- Florida insurance claim denial
- Florida insurance contract breach
