And then there was one

Yes, folks, there is only one, S. 408 – the Sinkhole Bill. That’s the only property insurance bill that survives after the deadline for committees to meet. At this point, a bill would have to be amended on to something else to be passed, and that would need to happen in both houses.

We are down to the “horse trading” section of the legislative Session. That’s where powerful people, like the Senate President or the House Speaker, want something really badly, and they’re willing to give something up to get it. That’s Florida politics.

There could be several reasons for this unexpected outcome, if it holds.  Legislators were more focused on political work such as disenfranchising voters and packing the Supreme Court, rather than insurance. The budget is a huge problem consuming many hours. It is possible legislators plan to raise even more money from insurance interests ahead of next year’s elections.

S. 408 is still pretty bad. It takes rights away from consumers. For instance, we would be limited to three years to file claims instead of five.  It reduces our benefits – your “replacement cost” policy will only pay in full if you spend the funds to replace and present those to the insurance company.  Of course, you probably can’t or won’t do that, so your payout will be “actual loss” instead. Oh, you will still be able to buy a “true replacement value” policy that works like the one you have now, but, surprise, it will cost more.

Call Senator Jack Latvala and Senator Dennis Jones and tell them to fix S. 408. Ask them to vote “YES” on floor amendment 497744 by Senator Fasano to deal with replacement cost value and amendment 415180 by Senator Smith on time to file claims.

The current bill does one good thing – it extends “file and use” ratemaking. That means insurers have to get approval from OIR before raising your rates.

On sinkholes, insurers will have to offer coverage for complete collapse, but nothing else. Citizens will be required to offer sinkhole coverage. The effect would be to pile even more policies into Citizens, which I did not think was a goal of the legislature.  But insurers don’t want to offer that coverage and people have to get it somewhere.

Finally, the bill changes the name of Citizens Property Insurance Company to Taxpayer Funded Property Insurance Company. Now, I don’t think this new name accurately states the situation. It’s just a dig by legislators. And, in fact, Citizens has been making money since there have been no hurricanes for five years. It hasn’t made enough money, but if there are no storms it will continue to make money.  It only become taxpayer funded if there’s a really big storm and it has to assess everyone.  So, should it be named the “Possibly Taxpayer Funded, But Probably Not, Property Insurance Company (With Lower Rates)”?