As a consumer, you always have a choice to switch carriers and find one that offers better coverage. The article is written by a public adjuster who stands to lose $ if this cap is approved, so at least a full disclosure would make this article more transparent.
Perhaps you missed it. The end of the article fully discloses the opinion’s author as a public adjuster:
About Donald Phillips
Don Phillips, president of the Florida Association of Public Insurance Adjusters, has more than 40 years of experience as an insurance claim professional. Phillips has served policyholders as a licensed public adjuster for 16 years and before that, worked as a staff claims manager and then an owner of a regional adjusting company. He is a past president of the Florida Association of Independent Adjusters and a guest lecturer for the Florida Advisory Committee on Arson Prevention. Phillips graduated from the University of Florida and completed the Vale Technical Institute Building Estimatics Course. He is also a court approved expert witness. For more information on FAPIA, visit http://www.fapia.net.
Don Phillips is exactly right with his comments and it matters not that he is a public adjuster. Truth is the truth. Citizens Insurance is what we get when we allow the Gov’t to run and Insurance company. They exempted themselves from Bad Faith awards in the event they poorly treat their policyholders. As a result, they are not as concerned about customer service or violations of the policy contract. No private Carrier would ever intentionally place wording in the policy that even remotely resembles this fiasco. The fact that Barry Gilway has acknowledged that at least 25% of his customers who choose to not use Citizens vendors will not be fully indemnified on these claims is a testament to how little Citizens cares about their policy holders.
Citizens was never intended to be a ‘competing’ insurance company. It is there as a last resort, but even that isn’t working. It has become a place where people who want to live in south Florida or anywhere in Florida near the coast can buy insurance that has little actuarial input into the rating structure. That is – it’s much cheaper than the rest of the insurance market. Take your insurance and buy it from a private carrier and see how that works for you.
Citizens needs to be doing more things to piss off their policy holders to help push them to the open market.
IJ should publish Mr. Gilway’s response to this prejudicial opinion. It leaves out many facts, including how the average water claim at Citizens rose from $4,000 to $15,000 (if my memory is correct), how there arethe same 12 lawyers involved in the inflated claims, and how Citizens receives Lawsuits regarding non-payment for a claim before they receive the actual claim.
The Florida Legislators need to reign this in. It is now spreading over into auto insurance!
The author described Citizens’ long overdue change as a ‘classic bait and switch’. That tells me that he has no idea what ‘bait and switch’ is and as others here have opined, due to his employment,he definitely has a dog in the fight. Citizens has been propping up commercial and residential property insurance for those who want to live closest to mother nature for a couple of decades now. Why ? Because south Florida is full of people who can afford to own a house on or near the water, but they DON’T WANT to pay the appropriate premiums that come with that view, so they have cajoled the State into forming an insurance company, backed by the taxpayers…..all of the taxpayers, to keep their premiums artificially low. And now that this scam has reached new lows with the AOB debacle, they want to complain about the change. How about this: change insurance companies. You don’t have to do business with Citizens and I’d rather that you didn’t.
South Florida is the arm-pit of the State. The best thing that could happen for all of us living north of the Orlando area would be a Hurricane Andrew redux that makes landfall between Miami and Ft. Lauderdale and stays there for a while. Clean the place up some.
In the meantime, maybe our state legislature can grow a pair and put in place some measures to crack down on this ‘oh-too-obvious’ organized crime circuit. If Mr. Phillips’ business is legitimate, he should welcome some of the suggested changes as that would weed out the worst of the offenders…..at least it would seem that way.
Jax Agent must have a short memory. The Florida Residential Joint Underwriting Authority and Florida Windstorm Underwriting Authority were formed by the state after there was a mass exodus of insurance companies from the state after Hurricane Andrew, Those two entities eventually merged into what we now know as Citizens. It wasn’t about homeowners looking for lower rates. I also found his comments about South Florida laughable. If a major hurricane struck Jacksonville or Tampa head on you would see the same exact thing that you would see in South Florida. It has nothing to do with the people and everything to do with how they are treated by their insurance carriers.
Citizens is not the only insurer implementing managed repair programs or caps (even exclusions) on water damage claims. I believe ASI, Tower Hill, Florida Pen, and People’s Trust also have similar repair programs. Without meaningful legislative reform, the insurers and OIR will have to take these measures. It happened when sinkhole losses spiraled out of control and were abused in 2010-11 and now is happening with water damage. Jack K’s points are spot on – the same small group of attorneys are involved in these claims and there are many cases where the insurers first notice of loss is a demand served well after the date of loss.
This is RIDICULOUS and will HURT policyholders. Having experienced a water loss claim after 21 yrs. of homeownership in FL, I can tell you first hand that you DO NOT want an insurance company choosing some low ball contractor they have an inside contract with. That is a SERIOUS violation of policy holder rights and SERIOUS conflict of interest. The insurance company is regulated under the Financial services sector and they have NO business getting involved in the contracting business. Also, like the article stated, ONE DOES NOT KNOW the coverage they have UNTIL they actually need to use it, then SHOCK & AWE follows.
Having the insurance send out their own appointed contractor is not a solution its a disaster. I run a very reputable restoration company in the Florida Keys and I can tell you the problem is not the state of Florida it is Dade – Broward and Palm Beach counties, if you look closer you will see that 85% of our nations insurance fraud comes from these counties. Insurance companies send contractors to the Keys from Miami and the locals hate it they do marginal work make a mess and do not explain the process to the homeowner. I have to walk away from jobs in Miami regularly from home owners asking for new roofs and kitchens with minimal apparent damage. We need more enforcement on scope of work and protocol. Its no secret that Miami is the Banana Republic and perfect example of how an American City gets so out of control that it is affecting a legitimate insurance industry. Contractor kickbacks is a norm and it needs to be stopped this is exactly why these claims are coming in to high, to many corrupt people with their hand in the cookie jar. Insurance appointed contractors is not the solution. Common sense.
As a consumer, you always have a choice to switch carriers and find one that offers better coverage. The article is written by a public adjuster who stands to lose $ if this cap is approved, so at least a full disclosure would make this article more transparent.
Perhaps you missed it. The end of the article fully discloses the opinion’s author as a public adjuster:
About Donald Phillips
Don Phillips, president of the Florida Association of Public Insurance Adjusters, has more than 40 years of experience as an insurance claim professional. Phillips has served policyholders as a licensed public adjuster for 16 years and before that, worked as a staff claims manager and then an owner of a regional adjusting company. He is a past president of the Florida Association of Independent Adjusters and a guest lecturer for the Florida Advisory Committee on Arson Prevention. Phillips graduated from the University of Florida and completed the Vale Technical Institute Building Estimatics Course. He is also a court approved expert witness. For more information on FAPIA, visit http://www.fapia.net.
Don Phillips is exactly right with his comments and it matters not that he is a public adjuster. Truth is the truth. Citizens Insurance is what we get when we allow the Gov’t to run and Insurance company. They exempted themselves from Bad Faith awards in the event they poorly treat their policyholders. As a result, they are not as concerned about customer service or violations of the policy contract. No private Carrier would ever intentionally place wording in the policy that even remotely resembles this fiasco. The fact that Barry Gilway has acknowledged that at least 25% of his customers who choose to not use Citizens vendors will not be fully indemnified on these claims is a testament to how little Citizens cares about their policy holders.
Citizens was never intended to be a ‘competing’ insurance company. It is there as a last resort, but even that isn’t working. It has become a place where people who want to live in south Florida or anywhere in Florida near the coast can buy insurance that has little actuarial input into the rating structure. That is – it’s much cheaper than the rest of the insurance market. Take your insurance and buy it from a private carrier and see how that works for you.
Citizens needs to be doing more things to piss off their policy holders to help push them to the open market.
IJ should publish Mr. Gilway’s response to this prejudicial opinion. It leaves out many facts, including how the average water claim at Citizens rose from $4,000 to $15,000 (if my memory is correct), how there arethe same 12 lawyers involved in the inflated claims, and how Citizens receives Lawsuits regarding non-payment for a claim before they receive the actual claim.
The Florida Legislators need to reign this in. It is now spreading over into auto insurance!
The author described Citizens’ long overdue change as a ‘classic bait and switch’. That tells me that he has no idea what ‘bait and switch’ is and as others here have opined, due to his employment,he definitely has a dog in the fight. Citizens has been propping up commercial and residential property insurance for those who want to live closest to mother nature for a couple of decades now. Why ? Because south Florida is full of people who can afford to own a house on or near the water, but they DON’T WANT to pay the appropriate premiums that come with that view, so they have cajoled the State into forming an insurance company, backed by the taxpayers…..all of the taxpayers, to keep their premiums artificially low. And now that this scam has reached new lows with the AOB debacle, they want to complain about the change. How about this: change insurance companies. You don’t have to do business with Citizens and I’d rather that you didn’t.
South Florida is the arm-pit of the State. The best thing that could happen for all of us living north of the Orlando area would be a Hurricane Andrew redux that makes landfall between Miami and Ft. Lauderdale and stays there for a while. Clean the place up some.
In the meantime, maybe our state legislature can grow a pair and put in place some measures to crack down on this ‘oh-too-obvious’ organized crime circuit. If Mr. Phillips’ business is legitimate, he should welcome some of the suggested changes as that would weed out the worst of the offenders…..at least it would seem that way.
Jax Agent must have a short memory. The Florida Residential Joint Underwriting Authority and Florida Windstorm Underwriting Authority were formed by the state after there was a mass exodus of insurance companies from the state after Hurricane Andrew, Those two entities eventually merged into what we now know as Citizens. It wasn’t about homeowners looking for lower rates. I also found his comments about South Florida laughable. If a major hurricane struck Jacksonville or Tampa head on you would see the same exact thing that you would see in South Florida. It has nothing to do with the people and everything to do with how they are treated by their insurance carriers.
And who do you work for?
Citizens is not the only insurer implementing managed repair programs or caps (even exclusions) on water damage claims. I believe ASI, Tower Hill, Florida Pen, and People’s Trust also have similar repair programs. Without meaningful legislative reform, the insurers and OIR will have to take these measures. It happened when sinkhole losses spiraled out of control and were abused in 2010-11 and now is happening with water damage. Jack K’s points are spot on – the same small group of attorneys are involved in these claims and there are many cases where the insurers first notice of loss is a demand served well after the date of loss.
This is RIDICULOUS and will HURT policyholders. Having experienced a water loss claim after 21 yrs. of homeownership in FL, I can tell you first hand that you DO NOT want an insurance company choosing some low ball contractor they have an inside contract with. That is a SERIOUS violation of policy holder rights and SERIOUS conflict of interest. The insurance company is regulated under the Financial services sector and they have NO business getting involved in the contracting business. Also, like the article stated, ONE DOES NOT KNOW the coverage they have UNTIL they actually need to use it, then SHOCK & AWE follows.
ridiculous
Having the insurance send out their own appointed contractor is not a solution its a disaster. I run a very reputable restoration company in the Florida Keys and I can tell you the problem is not the state of Florida it is Dade – Broward and Palm Beach counties, if you look closer you will see that 85% of our nations insurance fraud comes from these counties. Insurance companies send contractors to the Keys from Miami and the locals hate it they do marginal work make a mess and do not explain the process to the homeowner. I have to walk away from jobs in Miami regularly from home owners asking for new roofs and kitchens with minimal apparent damage. We need more enforcement on scope of work and protocol. Its no secret that Miami is the Banana Republic and perfect example of how an American City gets so out of control that it is affecting a legitimate insurance industry. Contractor kickbacks is a norm and it needs to be stopped this is exactly why these claims are coming in to high, to many corrupt people with their hand in the cookie jar. Insurance appointed contractors is not the solution. Common sense.