News & Resources

Executives and board members of Citizens Property Insurance Corp. may not have gotten the reception they hoped for at a recent public hearing. Florida’s state-backed insurance company told the crowd at the Miami meeting that rates will go up again next year as the company struggles to address its shaky financial position. Citizens officials will meet with state regulators next week to finalize changes to homeowners, renters, condominium and mobile home rates.

In our last post, we were discussing a report about computer-based claims systems. The author alleges that the software allows insurers to underpay claims, especially auto and property insurance claims for bodily injury. Companies market the software as a tool to help insurance companies be more consistent in evaluating injury claims, according to the report. The more consistent the payouts are, the more consistent the rates will be. In the end, the theory goes, everyone will save money.

A consumer advocacy group published a report last month that provides some valuable insight into auto and property insurance companies and how they process claims. The author focused specifically on a brand of claim evaluation software that is widely used in the insurance industry. He maintains that the software saves money by ensuring that the insurance company underpays claims, especially bodily injury claims.

Congress has passed a National Flood Insurance Program renewal bill that will not expire in 90 days. The program was set to expire at the end of July. With this new measure, Florida residents will not have to worry about gaps in coverage until Sept. 30, 2017. The bill also included several reform measures long sought by insurance companies, brokers and agents.

From 1997 to 2010, Florida had more lightning strikes per square mile than any other state, according to the National Lightning Detection Network. That time span includes a few fierce hurricane seasons, of course. The property damage from those storms totaled somewhere in the billions, with each storm costing more than the last.

We are finishing up our discussion of a homeowner’s lawsuit that he hopes will be certified as a class action. He asserts that his lender and a homeowners insurance company charged him an exorbitant amount of money for force-placed coverage when his homeowners policy lapsed. The difference in cost was staggering: The bank’s premium added up to $18,000 per year. His private policy cost about $2,500 a year.

Homeowners have apparently had enough of force-placed insurance. One Florida homeowner in particular believes this is true, at least, because he has petitioned the court to certify his lawsuit as a class action. The defendants in the case are his lender and his homeowners insurance company. His complaint is rooted in a $10,000 insurance premium.

About a year ago, a North Miami Beach homeowner slipped up: He let his homeowners insurance lapse. Today, he finds himself petitioning a federal court to certify his lawsuit as a class action. He claims that the defendants, an insurance company and his former mortgage lender, have not acted in good faith and that their practices are deceptive and unjust.

It may not have happened in Florida, but it could have happened in the movies. A 51-year-old man has filed a lawsuit against an insurance company, claiming that the insurer has failed to pay the death benefit it owes him. The deceased was the man’s traveling companion in August 2011. He is a “person of interest” in her disappearance.

The explosion of a container of oven cleaner blinded a man seven years ago and he permanently lost sight in both of his eyes. However, the trauma of losing his sense of sight did not deter the injury victim from pursuing his claim to insurance benefits.