Most homeowners’ insurance policies provide liability coverage that offers protection against lawsuits if a person is injured or suffers damage to their property while on your premises. All too often, however, liability claims are denied by insurers for unclear or unfair reasons.
Over the course of 2016, Citizens Property Insurance Corporation has made a series of announcements that could best be described as upbeat. For example, the state-run non-profit indicated early in the year that its catastrophe funds were carrying a balance of close to $17 billion in cash and bonds, such that it was “in the strongest financial position” since its inception back in 2002.
It goes without saying that as soon as Hurricane Matthew was forecast to hit Florida, insurance companies doing business in the state almost immediately began preparing for worst-case scenarios. Indeed, initial projections were showing that certain areas of the Sunshine State could experience catastrophic damage.
While the phones at state-run Citizens Property Insurance Corporation — the insurer of last resort for thousands of Florida property owners who cannot otherwise secure the necessary coverage on the private market — will undoubtedly be ringing off the hook in the coming weeks due to the fallout from Hurricane Matthew, officials want the call volume to be even higher.
Now that Hurricane Matthew has all but exited Florida, continuing to make its way up the Atlantic Coast, people are slowly starting to come out from shelters or return home, eager to assess the fallout from the strongest storm to hit the state in roughly ten years.
A few weeks back, our blog began discussing how the Florida Legislature took definitive action in the aftermath of 2005’s devastating hurricane season to strengthen the position of homeowners in their dealings with insurance companies by passing legislation creating the Homeowner Claims Bill of Rights.
As property owners across northern Florida continue to pick up the pieces and assess the damage wrought by Hurricane Hermine, the storm that slammed into the Panhandle a little over a week ago, questions have naturally arisen as to the size of the hit the insurance industry will take and its ability to absorb it.
People across Florida have been paying extra attention to the weather forecast over the last few days given that the state seems to be surrounded by wholly unstable conditions.
As hard as it may seem to believe, it’s now been almost four years since the East Coast was hit by Superstorm Sandy, a hurricane of epic proportions that left tens of thousands of people in New York and New Jersey with major or catastrophic damage to their homes.
As much as people can take comfort in the fact knowing that their home — their most important asset — is covered by a comprehensive insurance policy, there’s no denying that this comfort comes at price. In fact, all indications are that this price is going to become even steeper in the coming months — if it hasn’t already.
