Insurers slashed Hurricane Ian payouts far below damage estimates, documents and insiders reveal

[hay rick]

Source: Washington Post

Florida’s insurance market has been teetering toward collapse for years. After destructive storms in 2005, several big carriers including State Farm pulled back coverage in the state, and newer, more thinly financed, smaller companies swooped in and began to operate. Then came 2017, one of the costliest hurricane seasons ever. Hurricane Michael battered Florida the following year.

Adjusters said they started to see carriers greatly reduce damage estimates, fully deny roof replacements more often and force claims of a certain value into litigation. Payouts started to get delayed or not come at all, adjusters and attorneys said.

At the same time, rates kept rising, and fast. Florida homeowners paid an average of $4,231 for home insurance in 2022, nearly three times the price in any other state — and rates are expected to increase again this year. Ten property insurers that operated in Florida have gone insolvent since January 2021. About 125 property insurers remain in the state, but experts said many are either not taking on new business or are greatly limiting policies because of the volatile market.

But the adjusters interviewed for this investigation said the major cuts and revisions to Hurricane Ian survivors’ claims are unlike anything they’ve ever seen before.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/03/11/florida-insurance-claims-hurricane-ian/

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The Florida homeowners insurance fiasco is metastasizing. DeSantis called two special legislative sessions to address the crisis last year but ultimately acted to protect insurance companies, not homeowners.

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

1. but DeSantis is focused on the more pressing issues of CRT, Book banning, Drag shows

[Phoenix61]

2. Of course he did. This should work well for Dems

Nothing like screwing over the very people who voted you into office. Fingers crossed Nikki uses this for the ammo it is.

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

3. $4,231 for home insurance!! yikes and DeSantis was saying move to FL because no state taxes

but $4231 is $352 per month!!!!

[radical noodle]

8. I wonder if that's for homes closer to the coast.

I live in the middle of the state and mine hasn't increased much at all in the last few years and it certainly isn't anywhere close to that much.

In regard to the denial of roofs, there's been an insurance scam for the last few years where roofing companies identify "damage" after a storm and claim the damage is so widespread that a new roof is in order. I don't know about anywhere else, but around here people have been bragging about getting a new roof for free by lying about damage. We've had roofing salespeople coming around to pitch this idea to us, even though we have a perfectly good and relatively new roof. The insurance companies are fed up and I can't say I blame them. As a consequence, insurance companies sometimes refuse now to cover a roof if it's got any age on it at all.

Living on the coast has become less affordable and I'm not sure that's a bad thing.

[Freethinker65]

14. Yeah. A friend sheepishly admitted about doing that here in Illinois

Her roof was over 25 years old and they knew for at least two years it needed replacing. Thought they would give it a try after a hailstorm. They got it covered by a young adjuster.

We have always paid for a new roof out of pocket when it was time. My insurance rates are going up because of people like her and her husband.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

9. Lack of functional gov't is big big tax: notice the disfunctional FL chief doctor, one example. . nt

[Deuxcents]

4. We are in trouble deep.

I moved from an area about 5-6 miles from where I am now but keep in touch w/ some of my old neighbors. The street I lived on 7-8 years ago was devastated n most under 2 feet of water. My friend, who still lives there lost damn near everything n I mean everything. The insurance n FEMA was n still is a nightmare to work with n it’s been 5 months since Ian. Some of them have packed up n left b/c of insurance companies dropping their coverage and/or ghosting them. Even insurance companies have packed up n left. But, Hey! They’re more concerned about drag queen shows n books they don’t like. This OP doesn’t surprise me at all.

[hay rick]

5. Meanwhile, much of Florida's media establishment has been complicit in downplaying this story.

They are more comfortable talking about drag queens and book removals.

[not fooled]

6. The worse the insurance crisis gets, the more deSatan will talk about CRT, drag shows, and wokeness

Count on it!

I'd say any voters stupid enough to fall for his game of Three-Card Monte and continue to vote for him deserve what they get but lots of other people suffer as well.

[Deuxcents]

7. That's true. I have lots of friends that feel like I do n vote as I do

Florida did not use to be this red. Looking back, it is like what the hell happened? Lots of signs, I’ll agree, but beware...it comes on like a plague..quick.

[Traildogbob]

11. Florida's Media?

It’s all now DeSatsn’s media under his rule what they are allowed to print.

[Achilleaze]

10. Republican "values" in action. As usual.

[paleotn]

12. It's a wonder that any insurance company is writing any homeowners products in FL.

South of maybe Gainesville, the place is a gigantic money hole for the insurance companies. I can't blame them for jacking up rates to match the crazy levels of risk or leaving the market completely. Or balancing the risk by increasing rates in less risky areas outside the climate change state. Florida is a complete nightmare in so many ways.

[NickB79]

13. Guess they shouldn't have banned the phrase "climate change" after all

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/mar/08/florida-banned-terms-climate-change-global-warming

Officials with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), the agency in charge of setting conservation policy and enforcing environmental laws in the state, issued directives in 2011 barring thousands of employees from using the phrases “climate change” and “global warming”, according to a bombshell report by the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting (FCIR).

Apparently Mother Nature didn't get the memo, and will now continue to wreck their shit with rising sea levels and storm surges.

In 20 years, vast parts of Florida will be uninhabitable.

[hay rick]

17. Florida is unsustainable.

DeSantis and his Republican contemporaries and predecessors have gone all in on the proposition that rapid growth is compatible with environmental sustainability. It's not. The Republicans have gutted growth management restraints and are on a path to eliminate all vestiges of home rule that would retard overdevelopment. In a sane political world, the people whose homes were decimated by hurricane Ian would 1) be properly compensated for their losses and 2) not be allowed to rebuild in that area. I believe one of the major reasons Florida's homeowners insurance rates are so high is that the largest reinsurance firms (often Swiss) refuse to offer coverage without a realistic climate change risk premium.

[Marthe48]

15. And in other states

insurers have jacked up the price of wind damage coverage, to offset their payout on the coasts. FEMA increased the cost of flood insurance to offset their payout to people living or businesses in flood zones. I have to pay a fee attached to my property ins that helps pay for maintenance in this watershed. Even though we own a house outside of any flood zone.

[ancianita]

16. Insurance refusals are just the start of financial problems over disaster relief.

Any for profit entity will put itself first, human loss, harm, or damage cost last. The courts are already swamped with the lawlessness of the last four years. Wait until California and other states' costs are known.

[CaptainTruth]

18. Our homeowner's insurance company went out of business early this year.

They were taken over by the state, we got a letter saying not to cash any checks received from them, they were insolvent & out of business.

It make me feel better about not renewing with them last fall. Last year they raised our rates about 35% which put us right at the $4,231 figure mentioned in the article. I was a customer for 10 years with no claims & nothing to show for it. It got me thinking that if I put that money in the bank every year, some in conservative investments, I would have at least $50,000 which would pay for a lot of home repairs, considering I'm a contractor so I'd do the work myself with a couple helpers.

I don't think I'd ever file a homeowner's insurance claim anyway because I've seen too much of the crummy work done by the contractors insurance companies use, I often get paid to fix it & do it right. So, why am I paying all that money for nothing? Doesn't make sense. I might consider a "catastrophic" policy with a high deductible of $100,000 or so, that shouldn't be so expensive.