Florida
Related: About this forumWhen will they pay? Floridians say state not holding insurance carriers accountable post-Ian
It started in the master bedroom.
The night Hurricane Ian threw itself against the edges of Southwest Florida, battering homes and sheeting down rain, its 145-mile-per-hour winds lifted the roof from the home where Sara Alvarez and her husband, Justin Jackson, sheltered.
Rain poured in, soaking belongings, walls and floors. As the winds battered the townhouse for hours, it leaked in wherever roof met wall. By the time the storm had passed, the ground floor was covered in 2 inches of water despite Jackson's attempts to suck it from the ceiling with a Shop-Vac.
Mold soon grew in the paths water had carved in the walls. It plagued Alvarez, who works from home, with daylong headaches and flu-like symptoms.
But that was just the start.
After a contractor tore out the couple's moldy walls, the insurance company for the homeowner's association at Phase VI of Parkwoods in south Fort Myers refused to pay the $2 million in emergency repairs for their and 67 other townhouses in the community. It left dozens of families living in half-gutted homes.
But Heritage Casualty & Property Insurance is far from the only insurance company leaving Floridians in the lurch, state records show.
https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/news/state/2023/08/16/florida-insurance-crisis-low-payouts-claim-denials-hurricane-ian-recovery/70277542007/
The DeSantis administration is not interested in dealing effectively with Florida's insurance problem. The insurance industry is one of the biggest campaign contributors to Florida's Republican Party candidates and officeholders.
lpbk2713
(43,201 posts)Thanks anyway.
dutch777
(3,465 posts)...flee or go bust. If all insurance ends up in the state's insurer of last resort program, while the profit mark up will be eliminated, the insured or the taxpayers will just get the bill after the next big storm in the form of higher rates or special assessments to keep the program solvent. DeSantis isn't big on protecting the little guy and as long as real estate sales are a profitable business and producing tax revenue, I doubt much will change. If the residential real estate market stagnates and the reason is that no one wants to buy into the sun, fun and high rate/no insurance market, then something will change.
snowybirdie
(5,632 posts)From my reading of this article today is the state is doing NOTHING to help residents. Silence from Tallahassee. And one local representative wants to focus on impeaching Joe Biden! We're a long way from recovery.