Florida Points Emergency Fraud Prevention Rule to Shield Policyholders in Wake of Catastrophic Storms

Final week, simply earlier than Hurricane Milton made landfall, Florida state officers issued an emergency decree to all licensed insurance coverage adjusters within the state to guard owners towards “unfair and misleading acts” and “post-storm fraud” by insurance coverage carriers. Based on The Washington Submit, the Florida Division of Monetary Companies is requiring that every one declare adjusters present an evidence for every change they make to a shopper’s loss estimate, doc these modifications, and retain all variations of the estimate and determine who made these revisions. When processing claims, adjusters should additionally use an digital estimating system that gives an itemized report of all injury, in addition to labor, supplies, gear and provides. These prices ought to be in keeping with what a contractor or a restore firm in that exact space would cost.

“Property injury from Hurricane Milton will likely be catastrophic and should lead to billions of {dollars} in property losses,” the emergency rule states. “Truthful and clear loss estimates and claims changes will likely be essential to make sure Floridians are correctly and pretty compensated underneath the phrases of their property insurance coverage contracts, whereas additionally making certain ongoing insurer solvency after probably momentous monetary losses.”

A 2021 investigation reported that some policyholders had their claims reduce by greater than 80 p.c by insurance coverage corporations, some with out the adjuster’s data or permission, following Hurricane Ian. Based on the investigation, adjusters contracted by regional insurance coverage carriers mentioned that managers had been altering their work by decreasing totals, rewriting descriptions of injury and deleting accompanying images with out their approval.

This isn’t the primary Florida legislation launched to handle misleading claims-handling practices and shield customers towards unhealthy actors. On Could 31, 2023, Governor DeSantis signed three insurance coverage payments aimed toward rising insurer accountability and transparency within the market. The brand new emergency rule drills down on elements of that legislation, focusing particularly on the behind-the-scenes strategy of pricing the price of injury.

Including complexity to insurance coverage claims is the truth that Hurricane Milton made landfall bringing damaging winds and ocean surges simply two weeks after one other main hurricane, Helene, pummeled Florida’s Gulf Coast. The insurance coverage business is categorizing the storms as two separate occasions, that means anybody who didn’t or couldn’t doc injury from Helene may face even better odds that their declare will likely be denied in the event that they had been hit by each storms.

Tricks to Maximize Your Insurance coverage

Along with state regulatory efforts to curb post-storm fraud, Florida policyholders will be vigilant in documenting and supporting claims within the wake of Milton. One crucial step is offering insurers with a accomplished “proof of loss” kind. These types typically ask for a listing of the broken property and the price to switch or restore such property, amongst different particulars. Attorneys and claims adjusters might help coordinate these efforts to make sure all gadgets are correctly catalogued and valued.

• Doc the Harm and Loss: Policyholders ought to hold information for all losses suffered, together with documenting all bodily injury to the extent doable. Policyholders must also make sure they hold all claim-related communications, which will be useful weeks, months, and even years later within the occasion of a dispute.
• Mitigate Losses: Policyholders ought to take all cheap and protected efforts to mitigate the property losses following a hurricane. Policyholders must also hold monitor of and doc all these mitigation efforts.
• Be on Time: Insurance coverage insurance policies typically place a time restrict on submitting claims. The truth is, one of the crucial frequent causes for denied claims is late discover to the insurer. Policyholders ought to learn their insurance policies rigorously and submit insurance coverage claims inside the time durations recognized by their insurance policies.

Conclusion

Florida insurance coverage officers have already acknowledged that “[f]air and clear loss estimates and claims changes will likely be essential to make sure Floridians are correctly and pretty compensated underneath the phrases of their property insurance coverage contracts, whereas additionally making certain ongoing insurer solvency after probably momentous monetary losses.” We are going to proceed monitoring essential regulatory updates impacting claims, however within the interim, policyholders will likely be properly suggested to take proactive steps to know and observe their coverage when submitting and supporting claims.