The attorneys in Florida used to cry all the way to the bank with happiness, now they can really cry all the way to bank on their way to cover their overdrafts until another golden cow surfaces.
Don’t think for a minute that the sneaky scum in Florida isn’t coming up with a new way to funnel wealth to themselves by manipulating the power of the state through the courts.
Florida is more corrupt than you can imagine and it will be their downfall. Everything in Florida is too little – to late, even before it is introduced. Their efforts at reform are a joke. The problem isn’t just the law, it’s the people, the wrong kind of people. I got so sick of it that I moved. I now live in North Carolina. I loved Florida, but couldn’t stay.
Carriers file rate decreases all the time. The small guys jump on this kind of thing all the time to justify decreases – anything to be more competitive in our extremely saturated and mature industry.
The problem ? Too many residents and lawyers are corrupt transplants from the Northeast coming from corrupt states run by corrupt politicians and corrupt lawyers that all want their palms greased by the latest scam.
The wrong people are moving to Florida and bringing their corrupted politics and morals with them. Send them all back to that hack Cuomo in New York.
A contractor has a homeowner sign an AOB before providing service. The contractor then becomes the “insured” under the homeowners policy and has all of the rights under the contract. Contractor submits bill to insurance company and insurance company does not offer full payment. It goes to court and as long as the contractor prevails under the suit and is awarded more than the insurance company offered, the insurance company must pay for the contractor’s attorney fees, due to s. 627.428, Florida Statutes. In some cases, the insurance company wasn’t even being notified until after all repairs had been done, and in many cases the first time the insurance company heard about the claim was from the attorney.
Sounds like they are acting as public adjusters who have muddied the water in Texas in the past several years. Their dishonesty causes property rates to climb.
There can be disputes between the insurance carrier and the insured over damages to the home. Most often, after a hurricane, there can be disputes over what was damaged by flood (not covered under the homeowner’s policy) and wind/rain. Because of the difficult of resolving these disputes, contractors often were the only expert the homeowner has to use. Some of these contractors found an interesting way to have the insured transfer the insured’s rights to the contractor. In some instances, this was a benefit to the insured and the process. There were bad actors within the contractor side. These bad actors would coordinate with some attorneys to take these rights, file lawsuits against the insurance carriers for Bad Faith with inflated estimates of damages and cost to repair the insured’s home. The courts and juries have often sided against the insurance carriers. Thus, tremendous payments made under insurance contracts. These losses and the potential to further loss have been passed along to the Florida consumers in higher premiums.
So now the AOB are gone… the customer will be left holding the bag for the cost to mitigate the loss from water damage. Think about this… your $400,000.00 home has a water line break in the evening and floods the house. Your insurance company says you are capped at $3000.00 for your water damage.
The companies WERE capping water in certain areas because people were putting in new kitchens before the adjuster even reviewed the damage and could only come in contact with the insureds attorney. That’s why no carrier writes in Southern Florida – its not hurricanes, its the fraud and people who have no problem filing two claims in one day – one from “water damage” and then another for “roof leaks” on their house. Companies want to pay for legitimate pipe breaks and replace your floors for $10k but they don’t want to pay $110,000 for your attorney fees so you can get new laminate floors.
People are filing roof claims when selling their homes so the buyer gets a new roof to “help” the sale. People will continue to think the industry is after them. When your 20 year old roof from the 90’s wears out, some roofer just happens to stop by and tell you have storm damage and wear. No s—, its 20 years old. Your bathroom shower from 1985 will eventually have to be replaced and its not State Farms fault.
Save some of your money you idiots to maintain your own home . Call your agent when your tree is in your living room and be normal.
That’s right. It’s the fraud and it’s the people. Florida has become a cesspool of dishonest, corrupt practices, as far as insurance is concerned. They are going to pull on that teat until they kill the cow.
Yeah, this is like the fraud with sinkholes. People put in small cracking in as sinkholes which almost destroyed the industry, which a 100 dollar fix turned into a 30,000 claim. People should be very happy with this legislation due to being able to stay in control of a claim. I have had several clients of mine sign AOBs and were scammed since everything was sent to the contractor who did not finish the work. I have to tell them, “sorry there is nothing I can do for you and oh by the way, your policy is getting non renewed. You must fix the damage before another carrier will write you.”
If this legislation is not in place, Central Florida would see some major increases in rates. The area I am in, a lot of carriers do not want to even touch it. Rates may not drop, but they did after the sinkhole crisis. Even if they didn’t, the rates will not dramatically increase as they have been doing. Glad to see Tallahassee working on getting this major issue fixed.
It will certainly take time for carriers to see what change this will have on consumer behavior and loss experience. With the largest player scaling back in South Florida I don’t think you’ll see a lot of eager writers anytime soon.
The problem is the insurance company. They take the expensive premiums from the homeowners every month but when it gets time to pay out, they low ball the homeowners by sending their own adjusters to inspect. Most home owners then accept the amount to fix their damage but later find out that the money given will not pay for the work to be done correctly. An example would be, a person’s roof needs complete replacement to make them whole. the insurance company sends out an adjuster who estimates the roof only needs half of the shingles replaced. they cut a check to the homeowner for $7,000. Later it is determined that the wood underneath the shingles was ruined and the entire roof needed to be replaced. Cost is $20,000. Guess who is stuck paying for the entire roof now?
It is not the insurance company. They leave the door open for supplements for the honest claims. But waiting months, almost years, after a loss like Hurricane Irma to report it, and damage that appears intentional. The bad guys with Water Mitigation, contractors, Public Adjusters and attorneys- they need to learn to make an honest living for themselves.
To say ‘The AOB is the whole problem’ is short sighted. The problem is, some corrupt politicians, some corrupt lawyers, some dis-honest InsCo’s, some dis-honest H/O’s (Home Owners) and some dis-honest Contractors. The AOB used by Honest Contractors allows H/O’s to get the complete repairs needed and paid for by the InsCo.How many InsCo’s go out of business after a major storm event? Anwser: none. Their income increases, does not decrease.
Douglas – responding to your comment about no insurance companies going out of business after major storm. This article talks about the 16 companies that closed after Andrew:
The contractors and remediation companies I know don’t need an AOB to get the complete repairs needed. There are other forms that can be used to get paid other than just an AOB form.
The attorneys in Florida used to cry all the way to the bank with happiness, now they can really cry all the way to bank on their way to cover their overdrafts until another golden cow surfaces.
Don’t think for a minute that the sneaky scum in Florida isn’t coming up with a new way to funnel wealth to themselves by manipulating the power of the state through the courts.
Florida is more corrupt than you can imagine and it will be their downfall. Everything in Florida is too little – to late, even before it is introduced. Their efforts at reform are a joke. The problem isn’t just the law, it’s the people, the wrong kind of people. I got so sick of it that I moved. I now live in North Carolina. I loved Florida, but couldn’t stay.
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Carriers file rate decreases all the time. The small guys jump on this kind of thing all the time to justify decreases – anything to be more competitive in our extremely saturated and mature industry.
The problem ? Too many residents and lawyers are corrupt transplants from the Northeast coming from corrupt states run by corrupt politicians and corrupt lawyers that all want their palms greased by the latest scam.
The wrong people are moving to Florida and bringing their corrupted politics and morals with them. Send them all back to that hack Cuomo in New York.
Pay attention and take notice, other states. FL has pointed the way. AOB abuses creep is real.
Can someone explain this to me like im 5yrs old? Having trouble making sense of all this.
A contractor has a homeowner sign an AOB before providing service. The contractor then becomes the “insured” under the homeowners policy and has all of the rights under the contract. Contractor submits bill to insurance company and insurance company does not offer full payment. It goes to court and as long as the contractor prevails under the suit and is awarded more than the insurance company offered, the insurance company must pay for the contractor’s attorney fees, due to s. 627.428, Florida Statutes. In some cases, the insurance company wasn’t even being notified until after all repairs had been done, and in many cases the first time the insurance company heard about the claim was from the attorney.
Sounds like they are acting as public adjusters who have muddied the water in Texas in the past several years. Their dishonesty causes property rates to climb.
There can be disputes between the insurance carrier and the insured over damages to the home. Most often, after a hurricane, there can be disputes over what was damaged by flood (not covered under the homeowner’s policy) and wind/rain. Because of the difficult of resolving these disputes, contractors often were the only expert the homeowner has to use. Some of these contractors found an interesting way to have the insured transfer the insured’s rights to the contractor. In some instances, this was a benefit to the insured and the process. There were bad actors within the contractor side. These bad actors would coordinate with some attorneys to take these rights, file lawsuits against the insurance carriers for Bad Faith with inflated estimates of damages and cost to repair the insured’s home. The courts and juries have often sided against the insurance carriers. Thus, tremendous payments made under insurance contracts. These losses and the potential to further loss have been passed along to the Florida consumers in higher premiums.
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
The companies WERE capping water in certain areas because people were putting in new kitchens before the adjuster even reviewed the damage and could only come in contact with the insureds attorney. That’s why no carrier writes in Southern Florida – its not hurricanes, its the fraud and people who have no problem filing two claims in one day – one from “water damage” and then another for “roof leaks” on their house. Companies want to pay for legitimate pipe breaks and replace your floors for $10k but they don’t want to pay $110,000 for your attorney fees so you can get new laminate floors.
People are filing roof claims when selling their homes so the buyer gets a new roof to “help” the sale. People will continue to think the industry is after them. When your 20 year old roof from the 90’s wears out, some roofer just happens to stop by and tell you have storm damage and wear. No s—, its 20 years old. Your bathroom shower from 1985 will eventually have to be replaced and its not State Farms fault.
Save some of your money you idiots to maintain your own home . Call your agent when your tree is in your living room and be normal.
That’s right. It’s the fraud and it’s the people. Florida has become a cesspool of dishonest, corrupt practices, as far as insurance is concerned. They are going to pull on that teat until they kill the cow.
Yeah, this is like the fraud with sinkholes. People put in small cracking in as sinkholes which almost destroyed the industry, which a 100 dollar fix turned into a 30,000 claim. People should be very happy with this legislation due to being able to stay in control of a claim. I have had several clients of mine sign AOBs and were scammed since everything was sent to the contractor who did not finish the work. I have to tell them, “sorry there is nothing I can do for you and oh by the way, your policy is getting non renewed. You must fix the damage before another carrier will write you.”
If this legislation is not in place, Central Florida would see some major increases in rates. The area I am in, a lot of carriers do not want to even touch it. Rates may not drop, but they did after the sinkhole crisis. Even if they didn’t, the rates will not dramatically increase as they have been doing. Glad to see Tallahassee working on getting this major issue fixed.
Ok carriers, now is time to open back up the zips that were closed due to AOB issue (including the zips in South Florida), no more excuses.
It will certainly take time for carriers to see what change this will have on consumer behavior and loss experience. With the largest player scaling back in South Florida I don’t think you’ll see a lot of eager writers anytime soon.
LFG!
I mean, right?
Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
It is not the insurance company. They leave the door open for supplements for the honest claims. But waiting months, almost years, after a loss like Hurricane Irma to report it, and damage that appears intentional. The bad guys with Water Mitigation, contractors, Public Adjusters and attorneys- they need to learn to make an honest living for themselves.
To say ‘The AOB is the whole problem’ is short sighted. The problem is, some corrupt politicians, some corrupt lawyers, some dis-honest InsCo’s, some dis-honest H/O’s (Home Owners) and some dis-honest Contractors. The AOB used by Honest Contractors allows H/O’s to get the complete repairs needed and paid for by the InsCo.How many InsCo’s go out of business after a major storm event? Anwser: none. Their income increases, does not decrease.
Douglas – responding to your comment about no insurance companies going out of business after major storm. This article talks about the 16 companies that closed after Andrew:
https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/southeast/2017/08/24/462204.htm
Since Andrew, there are fewer insolvencies, but they still happen. Just last year, Merced P&C closed after the Camp Fire:
https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/04/us/camp-fire-insurance-company-liquidation/index.html
The contractors and remediation companies I know don’t need an AOB to get the complete repairs needed. There are other forms that can be used to get paid other than just an AOB form.
It will be interesting to see how it affects things, even with the Auto Glass portion removed.