By Kate Cimini
It all began in the master suite.
When Hurricane Ian battered Southwest Florida and dumped rain, the 145-mph wind ripped off the roof of Sara Alvarez’s and Justin Jackson’s house.
Rain poured down, soaking belongings, floors, and walls. Jackson tried to use a Shop-Vac to clean the water off the ceiling, but the floor had 2 inches of standing water when the storm passed. The wind was pounding the townhouse continuously for several hours.
Alvarez who is a home worker developed flu-like symptoms and day-long headaches as the mold began to grow in the water etched paths in the wall.
This is just the beginning.
The homeowner’s insurer refused to cover $2 million in emergency repairs after an contractor removed the moldy walls of 67 townhouses, including the one owned by the couple. As a result, hundreds of families had to live in half-rebuilt houses.
State records reveal that Floridians weren’t the only people left stranded after Heritage Casualty & Property Insurance.
Many Floridians are yet to recover from the hurricane season of last year, despite that the hurricane season for the following year is already underway. Many Floridians are still not recovering from the last hurricane season, despite that the next one is already underway. The state, according to consumers and advocates for them, does not do enough to assist the public and has a soft stance towards insurers.
After Hurricane Ian, over 4,000 homeowners filed complaints against their service providers with the State.
Since January, 17 residential property owners complained that they had received an extension of their insurance coverage, additional payment, or that their claim was reopened. Attorneys for consumers are receiving more assistance as insurance companies leave the state and premiums are rising. Homes are also in poor condition.
Michael McQuagge, a Fort Myers consumer attorney said that since Ian “everyone has a problem. They either don’t get enough money or their expenses won’t be covered.”
All insurers are affected.
SouthernCAT arrived as soon Ian had left Lee County and was heading northeast to tear down the drywall in Parkwood Townhomes. Workers hung large fans on the ceiling to help dry out the mold and then welded gray roof tarps. The workers left after warning residents that the tarps would only be needed for a short time. They planned to replace the roof and walls in the future.
Heritage, despite being beyond the 90-day deadline Florida’s law requires insurers to honor legitimate claims to be paid by them in order to comply with Florida’s insurance laws, refused to reimburse SouthernCAT until July following that year.
Lee County documents show that SouthernCAT suspended work on these townhomes following months of non-payment. SouthernCAT has not responded to multiple requests for comments.
Heritage also under-estimated the costs of restoring damaged townhouses back to their original state for Parkwoods. The state offered $1.4M for two claims worth $12M after the homeowners’ association complained to it.
Joe Powers, Vice President for Claims at Heritage Insurance Company said that he was unaware of the Parkwoods incident but it had become his “most important concern”. Heritage will pay the claim. It was promised that the company would also revisit his $10 million claim.
There is little consolation for thousands of Florida homeowners whose insurers are yet to take action.
The complaints are mounting
In recent years, Florida’s market for property insurance has slowly been strangulated. Climate change is causing insurance rates to rise, insurers have gone bankrupt, or stopped offering policies. Storms in Florida are also becoming more severe and wetter. The homeowner can be devastated by a lowball offer, or even a refusal of the claim. This is because inflation increases the cost to repair damage.
Rarely do consumers file lawsuits or make complaints to the government against their service providers. Recent barriers to bringing a suit have been put in place, and the success of a complaint is not guaranteed.
McQuagge was able to confirm his claim by looking at the complaints that consumers have filed with their insurance companies since January.
Jimmy Patronis, Florida’s Chief Financial Officer, has received over 12,000 complaints from carriers since January. However 4,173 of these complaints cite the Hurricane Ian for residential property damage. The two-thirds of the complaints — 2,525 in total — are related to a late claim, an incomplete payment, or a carrier that is unresponsive.
In Lee, Collier and Charlotte counties which were hardest hit by Hurricane Irma, 60% of the complaints are about low or slow payouts.
Records show that Citizens Property Insurance Corporation received a number of complaints. However, American Integrity Insurance Company of Florida gathered the majority of the complaints regarding claim delays, while American Traditions Insurance Company collected the largest amount of complaints concerning underpayments.
Devin Galetta, Patronis Communications Director, says that as more carriers adopt policies for areas affected by Ian they could see an increase in complaints.
Heritage, which insures Parkwoods VI since October 2022 has received 683 claims. Over a third are directly related to the Hurricane Ian.
I asked for an interview at the Office of Insurance Regulation which is responsible for investigating fraud by insurers on the market. Samantha Becquer stated in an email that 50 potential cases of insurer fraud were investigated. However, she declined to say whether any insurers have been penalized or charged with criminal offenses.
Patronis says that policyholders complain about carriers delaying payment. He attributes this to fear, ignorance and impatience.
Patronis told the crowd, “People are dealing with an emergency.” Their life’s investment was just destroyed. Things never move quickly enough.
He can also investigate claims made by policyholders who are dissatisfied.
Patronis stated, “We’re the best tools for recovery.”
Some homeowners, like the Parkwoods Phase VI Homeowners Association, who complained to the state found it did not help them as much as they had hoped.
Kostas’ Lazarides condo literally blew off the pilings of Sanibel Island. His agency hasn’t called him since 2022.
The woman from Fort Myers, whose kitchen and roof were damaged by the hurricane filed a claim but dropped it to file a suit against her insurer.
Cher Luisi had finished her condo renovations when Hurricane Ian hit. She went to a Miami shark lawyer rather than file a formal complaint.
Patronis was nevertheless pleased with the catastrophe-specific penalties for carriers who defraud their customers, which are up to 500% higher than usual. He said that despite the fact no insurance companies had been fined, The Washington Post investigation of Heritage’s possible rewriting of assessment reports prompted the Office of Insurance Regulation to investigate fraud allegations.
Heritage’s 2022 Fourth-Quarter Earnings Report reported net income of $12,5 million. This was up from the loss of $49,2 million a year ago, due to millions in Ian claims from Florida policyholders.
In the fourth quarter of 2010, the company made four cents for every dollar it earned, and paid out 62.4 cents as claims to those who filed them.
Insurance crisis in Florida
Florida, according to the non-profit Insurance Information Institute that aims to demystify this industry, has the most expensive property insurance in the country. The average premium is $6,000 per year, up 42% from the previous year.
Friedlander says that insurers cite the civil suits and excessive claims made by clients due to climate change-related natural disasters occurring nonstop as reasons why prices are higher.
Friendlander stated that as a result of this, the insurers were forced to insolvency, and they have stopped writing new insurance policies in their state.
The Florida Division of Rehabilitation and Liquidation’s 2022 report on failed insurers revealed that they were harmed by poor management, inadequate claim reserves, assets deterioration and disasters.
Quinn explained that smaller insurance companies cannot cope with the surge of claims in hurricane season due to overharvesting. They fold.
Florida is a market that carriers avoid because it has experienced between $3.7 and $49 billion of hurricane damages in the past quarter century.
According to the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation, only 16 billion dollars of Ian-related loss was insured as of June 16.
Citizens Property Insurance is a “state-owned insurer of last resort.” The number of Citizens Property Insurance policies has almost tripled over the past four year as insurance companies have cut lines and raised rates. By April 2023 there will be more than 1.2 million policies backed by the state, up from 419, 000 in April 2019.
Over 521,000 residential claims have been filed in relation to Ian. About 82,000 of these remain unresolved.
After the storm passed, it was reported that the Parkwoods Homeowner’s Association contracted SouthernCAT for mold remediation and to fix homes inundated by Ian. Acentria Insurance Agency recommended SouthernCAT to the Parkwoods homeowner’s association after it had recovered from Hurricane Ian.
News-Press/Naples Daily News reviewed board emails, meeting minutes and other documentation from Phase VI Condo Association member.
Heritage is responsible for 100% of repairs to each townhome based on the summary of policy covering the Community from May 2020 to May 2023.
Heritage had ignored an initial claim for mold remediation and lowered the claim amount.
In July, he said that he didn’t know why his firm hadn’t paid or acknowledged the claim for emergency repairs, and why they had lowered the claim for the second repair.
Powers told SouthernCAT that he was going to cut a check for the entire community by the evening of the following day. This would remove all the liens.
According to the law, carriers can delay payment for more than 90 calendar days when they suspect a claim is suspicious. Alvarez and Powers did not know that Heritage was looking into the mold remediation emergency claim.
Powers stated, “I believe that insurance companies do their best to be ethical and fair even though we are not perfect.”
Heritage’s minutes from its January meeting warned residents that their insurance premiums would rise if they didn’t have their policies cancelled by the board.
Do you have a soft spot for insurance companies?
Alvarez, in mid-August told The News-Press/Naples Daily News, that Heritage had paid Parkwoods VI, while Lindquist stated she was able to contribute towards the settlement. The liens are still in place and the damage caused by Hurricane Ian is evident.
Heritage Heritage is not facing any other consequences than the bad press.
Quinn says that Florida has a lenient insurance carrier law, allowing them to avoid paying claims or delaying payments.
Quinn says that Patronis and DeSantis need to push for tougher penalties against carriers who commit insurance fraud. This includes bringing criminal charges on executives of the carrier who either pay claims at an inappropriately low rate or don’t pay any.
Quinn claims that there is no enforcement of laws against the insurance sector. Quinn says that a $25,000 fine for an insurance company stealing $1 million is not enough to deter them.
State’s Attorneys decide whether to bring criminal charges. The Office of Insurance Regulation and Patronis can present evidence to state prosecutors of criminal wrongdoing.
Patronis stated that if they have done something wrong, they will be punished to the extent they no longer want to conduct business in Florida.
American Integrity Insurance was among those who were most at fault for the complaints made about Ian.
The Office of Insurance Regulation which is responsible for investigating carriers has declined to make any comments.
During the course of his campaign, Patronis’ PAC received donations totaling more than $ 2 million from insurers and their top executives. Heritage contributed $100,000 or more to the campaign. Unknown is how much the carriers donated to Democrats in that same period. Insurance companies have donated $74 million in total to Florida politicians, including the Florida Republican Party which is currently leading the state.
Ben Wilcox is the research director at Integrity Florida in Tallahassee, an organization that studies campaign donations and their impact on policy. He said such types of contributions are not uncommon or exceptionally high. Wilcox, however, called the donations “legal corruption.”
Wilcox said, “They do not make contributions to the government because they desire good government. They hope the government will treat them well in terms of regulation.”
Lori Lindquist filed a formal complaint in April with the Chief Financial Officer of New York State after Heritage had refused to honor the claims for several months, and responded only rarely to the requests she made. Heritage became the focus of an investigation by the state.
Lindquist said that Heritage responded finally after Lindquist filed her complaint. She declined to comment on record regarding the complaints and claims, but the minutes from the May 2023 meeting of the homeowners’ association clearly show the frustration expressed by the community with Heritage.
The board stated that “we’d like to avoid litigation but, if necessary, will take legal action to pay the claim. “.
McQuagge pointed out that litigation can be difficult in cases like Parkwoods. SB-2A stripped policyholders’ rights to sue by addressing Florida Statute 627.428, also known as the “David and Goliath Statute”, signed on December 16, 2022 by Governor Ron DeSantis. The statute required carriers to cover the costs of customers who sued them, making it more accessible to people with low incomes or small claims.
McQuagge said, “You have been deprived of your right to sue an insurance company if you are a condominium or a HOA.”
SB-2A’s proponents claimed that it was designed to lower premiums through a limitation of lawsuits filed against insurance companies.
McQuagge stated that the Senate Bill denies consumers of their right to access court.
Patronis claimed SB-7052 was a law that would protect consumers and keep insurers in check. McQuagge, however, said the bill had no teeth, as it only required insurance companies to continue doing what they do already.
Although it may seem that the consumers are protected, I am not certain if that is true. McQuagge stated, “My opinion is that they expected hurricane claims.”
They are terrified by every storm
Heritage, along with other companies, has successfully denied or delayed claims for eleven months.
Since October, a construction zone surrounds Alvarez and Jackson. Jackson’s daughters bedroom walls have yellow tape covering them as they cover drywall and replace it with transparent plastic sheeting that is fastened on studs. The ceilings were ripped off, exposing the wires and lights. To get rid of more mold they removed the floor themselves.
They are concerned about the sale of their current townhome, despite their wish to build in Punta Gorda. It is in a bad condition. Who would want to buy it?
Alvarez and Jackson were trapped in their unfinished house in June.
Jackson stated, “Heritage Is a Joke.” “.
“Five months without an inspection?” He asked. He nodded. He asked.
Jackson pointed to the items he’d done as he described what he did, such as scraping concrete and buying carpets at Aldi.
Alvarez replied, “To make it livable. “.
It is only a matter of hope for them that the roof they have tarped will be able to withstand another hurricane. The roof will probably not be fixed in time.
Jackson said, “It’s PTSD each time it rains.”
Articles, guides, videos and websites specific to the industry like https://therooftechnician.ca/ can be a valuable source of information on how to handle emergency roof repairs. These resources of The Roof Technician emergency roof repair will help you gain an understanding of what to do in the event of a roofing emergency and make quick and efficient decisions. These resources are useful for both homeowners and contractors who need to respond to an urgent roof repair situation.
