Home Insurance

As the Atlantic Ocean shows signs of heating up, potentially fueling damaging hurricanes, a former state and national disaster chief warned Tuesday of working-class Floridians being priced out of communities in post-storm rebuilding.Craig Fugate, a disaster-planning consultant who previously served as director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management and administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said financing and the availability of insurance will continue to be issues for some people trying to rebuild.

A property-insurance company has agreed to pay a $1 million fine after a state review found it violated claims-handling requirements following Hurricane Ian, according to an order signed Thursday by Florida Insurance Commissioner Michael Yaworsky.The order and a report issued in March said Heritage Property & Casualty Insurance Co. violated state insurance laws, including by not promptly acknowledging that it received communications about claims, not paying or denying claims within a 90-day timeframe and not maintaining complete claims records.

As Florida homeowners grapple with increased property-insurance rates, two Republican lawmakers have filed a proposal that would allow people to buy policies covering only unpaid mortgage-loan amounts.

In an issue that might ultimately have to be sorted out by the Florida Supreme Court, an appeals court has sided with a Collier County homeowner in a dispute about a 2021 law that placed additional hurdles to filing lawsuits against property insurers.The ruling last week by a panel of the 6th District Court of Appeal dealt with whether part of the law could apply to policies issued before the law took effect. The panel agreed with arguments by attorneys for homeowner Rebecca Hughes, whose home sustained water damage in 2019 but who did not file a lawsuit against Universal Property Insurance & Casualty Insurance Co. over the claim until August 2021 — about a month after the law took effect.

A key senator said Tuesday he does not expect lawmakers to make major property-insurance changes during the 2024 legislative session, as they continue to watch the results of an overhaul passed last year.

Estimated insured losses from Hurricane Idalia topped $156 million Sunday, as the total continued to steadily climb.

Regulators have ordered the state-backed Citizens Property Insurance Corp. to revamp — and trim — proposed rate increases.Florida Insurance Commissioner Michael Yaworsky signed an order Friday that took issue with parts of a Citizens rate proposal that included increasing rates by 12 percent for homeowners with the most-common type of policies.

AAA won’t renew “a very small percentage” of homeowners and auto insurance policies in hurricane-wracked Florida, joining other insurers in limiting their exposure in the Sunshine State despite efforts by lawmakers to calm the volatile insurance market, the company said Tuesday.

The cost of homeowners insurance in Florida has increased 100 percent over the last few years

Farmers Insurance may know a thing or two, and one of them is that the company is not going to write new policies or renew existing policies. The non-renewals will play out over several months.