R.I.P. Florida Homeowner's Insurance

That's not really true when it comes to homeowners claims. If you have repeat claims from similar losses you are more likely to have your insurance company send you a letter saying you need to do x, y and z to prevent future losses or they will drop you. Generally speaking, there is no at fault concept when it comes to property insurance because most claims are acts of nature and such.

 

I wasn't speaking of a hypothetical, this actually happened to me (twice). I can't say what is more likely, but 2-for-2 with confirmation from others working in or with the industry in our area is more reliable to me than other perspectives, respectfully. I'd love to consider an insurance company that operates the way you suggest, though.

Go GATORS!
,WESGATORS

 

They all do, as far as I know. Obviously claims contribute to company rate increases, but they are not making those calculations on an individual level, because if you have a big storm, its impacting lots of people, not just you. ITs not like an auto accident. Lots of companies offer discounts for being "claim free" so if you make a claim or two, that might go away, raising your rate. But they don't surcharge for claims they way they do on auto policies when you are at fault. Your claim record could also make it harder to change companies.

 

I have a real world example for you and this lady didn't intend to defraud the system...

Client comes to me (Insurance Agent in South Fl) and is looking for a new policy as her company is going under.
Client had a small claim with her insurer, claim got denied because it was under her $2,500 deductible (small roof leak), next thing you know the lawyers start reaching out to her and tell her that they can get more money for it, she says sure and doesn't hear anything from the lawyer for months. Meanwhile she gets a handyman out to fix the leak and make all the repairs for under $1,000.

Now it's time to write her with Citizens, she gets the Wind Mitigation and 4pt Inspections. The roof has 17 more years remaining life and her premium is lower than what she had before. We sign her up and everyone is happy. The next day, she gets a check in the mail form the prior carrier for $45,000 to replace her roof. She never knew the claim was made and the lawyer already got his cut. So she now has a check for $45k, for a roof that doesn't need to be replaced. But heres the kicker, the company that wrote the check has gone bankrupt and the only way she can cash it is if she goes to the State Funds and makes a plea. Dont worry, the lawyer got paid.

 

Wouldn’t she have had to sign a contract with the public adjuster and/or lawyer? You are saying she wasn’t aware a lawyer was representing her or that she was persuing a claim? That’s fraud alright, but not the type you think it is. That “lawyer” sounds like they may have committed a crime. Although I suspect the woman probably *DID* sign something and was either not forthright with this story or just didn’t know what she was doing.

Also not sure why an insurance co is blindly sending out checks for $45k. You saying they did that without even looking at her home? What was the $45k based on? When we fought our Irma claim it seemed like they must have come out at least 5 times to inspect the roof in different ways and different places (it got nonsensical, like they needed a map of each specific broken tile on the roof… which was obviously their way of trying to pretend the roof failed totally on its own rather than Irma causing it to fail). Which btw if you have a tile roof every time they walk on it is likely to cause even more damage if the inclination is to repair vs. replace…very similar to that State Farm video above we pretty much knew every time they went up on the roof more tiles were probably breaking. It took like a year to finally get them to settle outside court. If a company is sending out checks like that no wonder they went bankrupt! None of that story makes any sense, including that the woman just held the check until it could no longer be cashed.

 

If what you're saying is true, the lawyer committed a number of ethical violations that could get them disbarred. Are there unethical lawyers in Florida? Sure. But I'd also be mindful of who told you the story.

 

Yep, we had a clear inspection and were still refused coverage. The insurance pendulum seems to swing wildly from one side to another.