Florida Governor convened a special meeting to solve property insurance and reinsurance problems

Florida Governor convened a special meeting to solve property insurance and reinsurance problems

Ron DeSantis, Florida Governor, convened a special meeting to solve property insurance problems and tackle reinsurance issues. Options under consideration include full or partial property tax relief for victims of Hurricane Ian.

The meeting will become the second special session this year devoted to property insurance. This is a complicated matter for the state that has become even more sensitive after the Category 4 storm that hit Florida Southwest on September 28. According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the state of Florida and local households received over $3.31 billion in federal grants, natural disaster loans, and flood insurance payments after Hurricane Ian.

At the meeting, the legislators will also consider measures of improving property insurance affordability for Florida residents and discuss reforms aimed at preventing litigation and fraudulent claims. Excessive litigation is considered to be one of the state’s greatest problems. Last year, over 95,000 property insurance-related claims were filed in Florida. For the sake of comparison, there were fewer than 1,000 in most other states.

This year, Florida homeowners faced an almost 33% insurance rates growth as some insurance firms left the market completely. An average homeowner cannot handle it, especially elderly people with fixed incomes.

Another serious problem is that the state-funded Citizens Property Insurance Corp. receives thousands of applications a week from homeowners who need insurance. Citizens Insurance is considered to be the last-resort insurer. In March, the Corporation issued over 817,000 policies and expected this number to exceed 1 million by the end of the year but Hurricane Ian brought this number up to 1.11 million.

Florida residents and legislators hope the special session is productive. The latter have declared that they intend to solve this problem to protect the state for future generations.

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