Another hurricane season is weeks away, and policyholders are loyally paying their premiums to ensure they are covered should disaster strike. But if you are a property owner in Florida, chances are your insurance rates are increasing at an unprecedented pace – sometimes by as much as 111% – or your policy has been dropped. With declining coverage or insurers going insolvent, policyholders are feeling the pinch of an insurance market in crisis.

Florida’s property insurance catastrophe has led to companies leaving the state, others filing for bankruptcy, some choosing to nonrenew large swaths of insurance policies, and others drastically tightening their policy eligibility requirements. Insureds are stunned by the massive price hikes on premiums, policy cancellation notices, and companies shedding policies.

Insureds’ options in Florida have become limited, and consumers are facing dire consequences. The insurance industry in the Sunshine State is not sustainable. Insurers must pay legitimate property damage claims as doing so will save insurers money and help consumers.

Lawsuits are not the root cause of the insurance industry’s present problems. In fact, litigation is only incentivized when insurers fail to pay legitimate claims. Denying or delaying payment of valid claims cost insurers because that means property damage insurance lawyers like myself must litigate for what the insurance company legitimately owes my client. Then, when we look under the hood, we uncover bad faith insurance practices, which often leads to punitive damages that the insurer owes on top of the principal or cost of repairs. (Insurance bad faith exists when an insurer fails to honor the fair claim of the insured or unlawfully mishandles a claim.)

Governor Ron DeSantis says Florida fights around 100,000 insurance claims in court each year. Florida homeowners don’t want to be unjustly enriched; rather, they want roofs over their heads, sinkholes repaired, and water/mold removed after a storm strikes, to name just a few types of property damage claims we see here at Corless Law Group.

The governor agreed to a special legislative session – from May 23 through May 27 – to address the property insurance crisis of dropped coverage and higher costs. The special session should consider reforms, which will include insurance executives being questioned under oath in order to pave the way for consumer protections and relief that everyday Floridians so desperately need. We must protect Florida consumers. (The session, however, will not include condominium reforms, which is surprising given the deadly Surfside condo collapse.)

Corless Law Group counsels and advises residential and commercial policyholders whose valid claims have been delayed, denied or underpaid by their insurance companies. With over $500 million recovered for policyholders, allow us to show you how we successfully resolve property damage disputes. Call 813-258-4998 today.