State officials in Florida have stepped in to help storm-battered residents get the money they need from insurance companies.
Just before the landfall of Hurricane Milton, which hit the state roughly two weeks after Hurricane Helene, the Florida Department of Financial Services issued a decree to insurance adjusters with new requirements to avoid "unfair and deceptive acts" and "post-storm fraud" by insurance carriers. A copy of the decree was obtained by The Washington Post.
The emergency order requires adjusters to provide a written estimate of losses to the policyholder, breaking things down line by line, as well as every version and variation and "to what extent the program was modified by the adjuster." Changing the initial estimate is prohibited unless the adjuster provides a detailed explanation as to why it was done and who made the decision, per the Post's report.
Adjusters must also use an electronic system that provides an itemized report of the damage as well as the cost of labor and supplies for repairs. Those numbers should also be consistent with what a contractor or repair company in the area would charge, preventing adjusters from making lowball offers or rates based on different states or years.
"This provides much needed relief to policyholders from unscrupulous practices of insurance carriers," said Mathew Mulholland, an insurance claims expert and the founder of the Building Experts Institute told The Washington Post. "For so long, carriers have been able to take legitimate estimates and manipulate them for their own gains."
As storms continue to intensify because of climate change, the new rule protects homeowners and gives them a chance to rebuild fairly with the money they are owed. Other states like Texas have had insurance companies pull out of the market or charge exorbitant rates due to the increased amount of damages caused by stronger storms, leaving people paying out of pocket. And while government programs do exist to support those in need, they are often expensive or slow-moving thanks to bureaucratic restrictions.
People are taking matters into their own hands, like the developers of the Hunters Point neighborhood in Florida, who implemented a number of "hurricane-proof" changes like steel walls to protect from flooding and solar panels to keep the lights on during power outages. These changes have reduced insurance costs for homeowners and have the added benefit of making their homes greener, helping reduce their contributions to climate change.
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