Florida Gov. DeSantis signs property insurance legislation

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday signed right into a regulation sweeping property insurance coverage laws 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 bundle “probably the most vital reforms to Florida’s owners insurance coverage market in a technology.”

The signings mark an finish to a particular legislative session on insurance coverage the place lawmakers within the GOP-controlled statehouse permitted the broad measures in three days, with little public enter or skilled evaluation. The Legislature didn’t approve insurance coverage 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.

Within the statehouse, the payments largely moved with bipartisan help, with lawmakers describing the bundle as a significant first step in repairing a market suffering from insurer insolvencies, coverage cancelations and rising insurance coverage prices.

The primary level of criticism from Democrats, the minority get together, was that the laws doesn’t do sufficient to grant instant monetary reduction to owners whose premiums have elevated. Republicans acknowledged it will take 12 to 18 months earlier than costs could drop.

“I don’t know what else I can do to decrease my insurance coverage,” stated Roni Sterin, an actual property agent in Broward County who stated her insurance coverage prices unexpectedly jumped about $1,500 just lately. “No one’s serving to us.”

The insurance coverage business has had two years of underwriting losses exceeding $1 billion every year and a number of other insurance coverage firms 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 non-public insurers has pushed property house owners to Residents Property Insurance coverage, a state-run public insurer meant to be a final resort.

The brand new legal guidelines would create the $2 billion Reinsurance to Help Policyholders program for insurers to buy insurance coverage to assist insulate themselves from danger. Insurers must cut back policyholders’ charges to entry the state reinsurance fund. It additionally affords grants of as much as $10,000 to outfit houses so they’re much less susceptible to hurricane harm, if the houses meet sure standards.

The laws forbids insurers from robotically denying protection due to a roof’s age if the roof is lower than 15 years outdated. Householders with roofs 15 years or older can be allowed to get an inspection earlier than insurers deny them protection.

If an inspection reveals {that a} roof has not less than 5 years of life remaining, insurers can’t refuse to problem 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 will solely must be repaired as an alternative of changed underneath an exemption to the constructing code that the proposed laws creates.

The laws 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 bundle have ceaselessly famous that Florida accounted for 9% of all insurance coverage claims filed nationally however almost 80% of all of the property insurance coverage lawsuits.

The bundle additionally features a measure to require that each one condominiums larger 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 almost a yr in the past.

The payments would enable for extra state oversight so regulators can spot developments, analyze causes and attempt to stop the longer term failure of insurers.