Florida leaders to consider big property-insurance reforms – Orlando Sentinel

TALLAHASSEE — With Florida’s property-insurance system in turmoil, the Republican-controlled Legislature appears ready to take major steps to try to stabilize the market during a special legislative session next week.

On the same day yet another insurance company announced it was closing shop in Florida, Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, and House Speaker Paul Renner, R-Palm Coast, released a formal session proclamation Tuesday that indicated lawmakers will consider a series of hot-button insurance issues.

They include trying to curb the costs of lawsuits over insurance claims and boosting the availability of reinsurance, which insurers buy to protect themselves from massive claim events such as hurricanes. They also listed limiting a long-controversial practice known as assignment of benefits and bolstering the financial stability of the state-backed Citizens Property Insurance Corp, Florida’s property insurer of last resort.

Former Sen. Jeff Brandes, a Tampa Bay Republican who has long advocated for limits on payouts to lawyers in property insurance litigation and other reforms that failed to get approved, said the Legislature is about to do things that were unfathomable two years ago because the situation has become so bad.

“They’re getting rid of one-way attorney fees. That’s the number one thing they need to do,” Brandes said. “Second, they need to fix Citizens in a big way, and hopefully they will do something on roofing.”

Lawmakers also will take up proposals to provide tax relief and other assistance to people who suffered damage in hurricanes Ian and Nicole. They also will consider a priority of Gov. Ron DeSantis to provide bill credits for motorists who frequently use toll roads.

“As outlined in the proclamation, we will consider further reforms to ensure Floridians have access to reliable and affordable property insurance, legislation that provides property tax relief to Floridians whose homes are uninhabitable due to recent hurricanes, and legislation that establishes a statewide toll credit program for frequent Florida commuters,” Passidomo wrote Tuesday in a memo to senators.

Detailed bills, however, have not been released for the special session, which will start Monday and is scheduled to end Dec. 16.

Meanwhile, United Property and Casualty Insurance filed paperwork for a “runoff plan” with the Office of Insurance Regulation on Monday intended to wind down its affairs in an orderly manner. Six insurers have been declared insolvent this year.

And Demotech, the Ohio-based rating company of last resort for insurance companies, announced this week that it is not inclined to rate any more insurance companies in Florida.

The leaders did not include for the session further limitations on abortion or so-called “constitutional carry,” which would allow Floridians to openly carry guns without getting permits. Also missing from the call is a proposal to address affordable housing, one of Passidomo’s chief goals.

But issues can be added to a special session as it begins. That was the case for the one in April, when lawmakers agreed on the first day to consider, and then later pass, a law dissolving Disney World’s Reedy Creek Improvement District.

The fate of the special district, which expires June 30 unless the Legislature takes action, has heated up in recent weeks with the removal of Bob Chapek as the CEO who opposed the state’s Parental Bill of Rights Law, which critics have called “Don’t Say Gay.”

Since the return of Bob Iger as CEO, there has been more talk of the Legislature coming up with a compromise with Disney over Reedy Creek, but the governor’s office has denied any call for a reversal or ‘U-turn’ of the law.

Renner said last month that lawmakers will look at a “kitchen sink of options” to try to stabilize the insurance market and expand private coverage. But he also cautioned that whatever changes the Legislature makes during the special session will not lead to immediate rate reductions for consumers.

Private insurers have shed hundreds of thousands of policies and sought large rate increases during the past two years because of financial problems.

Citizens has seen its number of policies soar to more than 1.13 million as of Friday. State leaders have long sought to keep policies in the private market, at least in part because of financial risks to Citizens from major hurricanes.

Brandes predicted that even with the changes being considered, Citizens could still wind up accountable for 30% of the insurance market by 2024. Its state-subsidized rates, which are 50% lower than those in markets like Tampa Bay and Miami, are pushing other insurance companies out, he said.

“For a state that rails against socialism, it is hard to not see Citizens as a socialist product,” Brandes said. “A single mother in Leon County is subsidizing a millionaire’s second home in the Keys. Citizens wasn’t intended to be that way.”

Lawmakers held a special session in May to try to stabilize the market, but problems have persisted. Among the steps that lawmakers took during the May session was to provide $2 billion for reinsurance, which is essentially backup coverage that insurers need to handle large amounts of claims.

Renner indicated lawmakers could consider tapping state reserves to help with reinsurance. Renner, however, said he did not want to make a “long-term commitment to underwrite insurance.”

Perhaps the toughest issue of the special session will focus on limiting litigation costs and, particularly, whether to change a law that often leads to insurers paying the fees of plaintiffs’ attorneys.

The insurance industry blames lawsuits for many of its problems, while plaintiffs’ attorneys argue litigation helps hold insurers accountable for properly paying customer claims.

A related issue is assignment of benefits, which is a practice that involves policyholders signing over claims to contractors, who then pursue payments from insurers. The industry argues that it often leads to costly litigation.

Brandes said the crisis has reached a tipping point and the Legislature must act now or even more companies will pull out.

“These are things we’ve known were needed to happen but unfortunately they waited until it was a crisis,” Brandes said. “They’ve kicked the can so far down the road there’s no road left.”