TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — State lawmakers are convening Monday in Tallahassee for a special legislative session aimed at tackling the growing property insurance crisis afflicting homeowners across the state.
Last month, Gov. Ron DeSantis called for the special session amid growing reports of homeowners seeing premiums increase from 30-60% and frivolous lawsuits and shady contractors causing insurers to either go under or drop policies.
Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis said in an interview with The Associated Press that the state last year accounted for 9% of all claims filed nationally but nearly 80% of all the property insurance lawsuits.
“Litigation involving insurance companies has increased 266% over the past eight years,” says Tasha Carter, Florida’s Insurance Consumer Advocate.
Florida has the third-highest cost for home insurance of any state, and on average, Floridians pay hundreds more per year than in neighboring states Georgia and Alabama.
“It’s a horrible crisis, I mean people are seeing their prices go up 25% on average,” State Rep. Andrew Learned, D-Brandon, said.
The Senate convened Monday at 9 a.m. and went into committee shortly after. The Senate Appropriations Committee was scheduled to take up two bills sponsored by GOP State Rep. Jim Boyd, R-Bradenton, which includes measures to create matching grants for home-hardening against extreme weather, reduce litigation and increase transparency from insurance companies, among other things.
“It’s a very troublesome scenario that we are in and we got to fix it and I think we can,” Boyd said.
10 Tampa Bay has a crew at the Capitol and will keep you updated as the week progresses.