Florida Oir wants more data, warns insurer of simultaneous refusal

Since the complaints of consumers have apparently determined due to unpaid hurricane losses, Florida's top insurance regulation and some legislators signal a new examination of the claims of the insurance providers and other practices.

The Commissioner of Florida Insurance Commissioner Michael Yaworsky at the end of last week recorded a memo in which more data from airlines and warning insurers who do not properly deal with stubbornness with simultaneous cause – those who are rejected due to the existence of wind and flood damage – were rejected – “Will lead to administrative measures and reimbursement to the consumer. “

“While the office recognizes the case law in relation to the simultaneous cause and the political language against the cause, it is not a mechanism to deal badly,” said Yawwersky in the memo.

He found that the State Department of Financial Services received a “significant number” of consumer complaints in connection with delayed or underpaid flood claims. DFS did not provide the number of complaints submitted in 2024.

Yaworsky and the Office of Insurance Regulation have not named the insurers who refer to the complainants refer to the insurance journal's follow-up issues. However, the people in the Florida insurance industry said that the memo apparently aims at “writing” technology companies that offer guidelines for national flood insurance programs.

“So

Wright Flood, headquartered in Clearwater, is one of the largest companies that offer an NFIP flood cover in Florida and all over the country. A spokesman for Wright said on Friday that the emergence of concerns for the company was a mystery.

“Since we are only a company with only floods, we follow all Fema rules and regulations and pay every dollar available in flood insurance,” said Robert Langrell, Senior Communications Manager at Wright Flood. The Federal Emergency Management Agency manages the NFIP.

Langrell added that Wright does not use anti-confrent causal clauses in flood policy. For 2024 Hurricanes, the company is also 25% before the demands observed in previous storms, he noted. In addition, the NFIP does not seem to pay more slowly when paying flood claims than in previous years.

The NFIP reported that from February 6th, more than 57,400 flood claims had been received due to the hurricane Helene, which brought parts of Appalachia Sturmflut in Florida and unprecedented precipitation last September. The exact number of claims that were paid was not available from the Fema.

In Florida, the OIR data show that about half of all claims, including wind and private flood claims in Helene and Milton, were closed until mid-February. The OIR does not pursue an NFIP claims, but the data show that private flood insurers -no WYO companies -have concluded about 22% of Milton claims with payment and 33% of Helene's flood claims with payment.

Flood contradictory damage damage was often a problem for real estate owners, some of which may not recognize that most real estate guidelines do not cover flood damage or that storm flood damage is often excluded from guidelines for wind cover. For guidelines with the language against the cause of the cause, insurers can refuse reporting if an excluded danger plays a role in the loss, even if a covered danger has contributed, the OIR stated.

In order to sort out which claims may not have been properly treated, OIR calls for more data from airlines by March 6. This includes:

• Written confirmation if the insurer has contractual agreements for writing and providing damage providers for the NFIP WYO guidelines. If the insurer does not write NFIP -WYO guidelines, a written confirmation is sufficient and the following points cannot be taken into account.
• Names of all companies with which the insurer assumes an active contract on behalf of the insurer for NFIP WYO guidelines. The answers must also contain the initial date of the contractual agreement.
• A copy of a manual for claims and, if necessary, the NFIP application manual.
• A written statement in which weaknesses and setbacks of the insurer and the claims to handle claims have been identified in the claims of the NFIP processing process.

Langrell from Wright Flood said that the company's compliance team evaluates the request.

Devriese of security first said that it was unclear what is behind the other part of Yaworsky's memo, the section warns Florida insurer to follow the law.

“I have no idea why the Commissioner added this part,” said Devriese. “We emphasize everyone who is involved in the claim procedure, the importance of compliance with the law and the insurance conditions of the homeowner. I would expect my competitors to do the same. “

She found that security initially received no large number of symptoms, but won more 5-star google reviews than complaints from consumers.

The commissioner was warned only a few days after the legislators had started to push invoices that seem to be apparently consumer -friendly, probably in response to complaints from policyholders who have been exposed to higher premiums in recent years. Some of these measures could significantly shake the real estate insurance world and undo part of the 2022 legislative insurance reforms.

Senator Don Gaetz, R-Pensacola, presented the Senate 554 draft law this month. Insurance companies must disclose the remuneration packages of the managers and set up a shift for the insured persons in claims for the insured persons.

This threatens to handle the legislation of 2022, which in most situations carried out disposable lawyers and multipliers. The insurers had blamed the fee permit to fuel excessive complaints by the plaintiffs' lawyers, so much that they forced a number of airlines in bankruptcy from 2020 to 2022.

“This legislation goes backwards and reinsert the Sliding scale”, which could escalate the adaptation costs for insurers and the reinsurance to increase their prices to an adaptation costs, said BG Murphy, director of government matters of the Florida Association of Insurance Agents. He spoke on Friday in a FAIA webinar about the upcoming legislative period in Florida, which starts seriously on March 6th.

Another measure, SB 790, would prevent insurers from canceling wind policy after flood damage, at least until renewal or repairing the repairs.

One reason for consumer complaints and national news about unpaid claims may have to do with the fact that three hurricanes have hit 2023-2024 Florida, which led to a large number of damaged houses. Complaints are not unusual after storms. After the Hurricane Michael in 2018 hit the Panhandle in Florida, Florida, Jimmy Patronis CFO, achieved a bulletin that the number of complaints from insured persons far exceeded the number of those after the Hurricane Irma, a much larger storm.

In addition, property devices and insurers have pointed out that many consumers have significantly increased their deductible in recent years, and many youngest hurricane claims have dropped below these deductible levels, which led to payments. The OIR data show that for the hurricane Milton, about 42% of all claims closed without payment fell under the protectedmates of the insured.

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