Pleas for Help Made at Orlando Town Hall Meetings; Gallagher to Suggest ‘Standard’ Policies

Tom Gallagher, Florida’s CEO and House Insurance Committee Chair Rep. Dennis A. Ross, R-Lakeland, listened intently to hurricane-related complaints–from families with nowhere to live, to homeowners with $500 swimming pool damages–at a March 19 town hall meeting at Dr. Phillips High School in Orlando.

Changes that would require companies to write “standard” policies that are written in easily understood language and would be easy to compare with those written by competing companies in easily understood language will be presented soon in proposals to the Florida Legislature by Gallagher. Policies would have to spell out the amount of coverage, deductible amounts and exactly what is covered.

Comments and feedback heard from hurricane victims at town hall meetings in Orlando, Sebastian, Punta Gorda and Pensacola, Fla., were used by the Department of Financial Services to determine what new provisions were necessary.

Before the Orlando town hall meetings several DFS staV members were posted outside the high school entrance to take a list of hurricane victims as they arrived so they could speak at the meeting–only 150 participants showed up. Each was assigned a number, which the CFO called out from the stage.

Gallagher and Ross listened compassionately to pleas for help from sobbing parents, holding a nine-month-old baby; and a woman caring for her children and her Alzheimer’s-inflicted mother-in-law.

“What are we were going to do at the end of the month when Federal Emergency Management Agency takes away our trailer?” Mary Sherman, whose home had been destroyed by two hurricanes, asked.

Gallagher heard a long list of horror stories and problems, including homeowners who took their complaints all the way to mediation but did not accomplish anything.

Some policyholders found the town hall meetings very productive. Several, jubilantly waving long-overdue checks, thanked Gallagher for providing a forum at which they could work out their differences with insurance company representatives.

Allstate, Citizens Property Insurance and State Farm, to name only a few companies parked “National Disaster Team” mobile units in the high school parking lot. Many talked to policyholders about their claims before the town hall meetings began at 9 a.m., and in some cases wrote settlement checks on the spot.

Gallagher often admitted he didn’t have answers, but everyone who spoke during the town hall meeting was escorted by a staff member out to the waiting trailers; where insurance company representatives discussed the claims with the homeowners under the watchful-eye of the DFS employee. If an insurance company representative wasn’t at the event, Gallagher instructed DFS employees to obtain information about the claim and call the insurance company to discuss the situation.

In some cases Gallagher’s only choice was to suggest mediation, or if that had already failed to hire a lawyer, all the while pledging to change Florida’s insurance regulations in an eVort to avoid such situations in the future.

Some homeowners said after mediation failed, they talked to attorneys and found that if they won the case, fees would average 40 percent of the settlement amount, leaving them without enough money to rebuild their homes.

The meeting in Orlando was the last of four suggested by Gallagher in Florida’s hardest-hit areas. Previous meetings were held in Pensacola, Sebastian and Port Charlotte. Gallagher reiterated at the Orlando meeting that based on feedback and information gathered during the town hall meetings, he would make recommendations to the Florida Legislature about how to strengthen insurance regulations so that homeowners and insurance companies would be better prepared for future hurricanes.

Topics Florida Hurricane Homeowners A.J. Gallagher