Florida residents react to special session on homeowner's insurance

From homeowners to lawyers to insurance companies themselves, the insurance crisis runs deep in Florida.

[hansslane]

I remember after a severe storms damaged the area I lived in, there were companies offering to replace
the whole roof when there was very minimal damage.
There are storm chasing roofers just like lawyers that chase ambulances.

[MTed]

Glad this is getting talked about. Lets be honest there are thousands upon thousands upon thousands of homeowners who took advantage knowing they had no damage because they wanted to sell their home with a new roof. It's a lot of scams for years that's Florida

[frankd]

I had the same experience in North Carolina last year. Roofers came to me and told me they would replace my roof for only the $1, 000 deductible instead of the full cost of $20, 000. I told them I doubted it. They said they will search storm records to justify replacement. I paid for the replacement myself.

[jermyeder]

So sounds like Florida is one storm away from total collapse.

[mariuszarszylo]

This just happened to me here in Michigan. I was out walking the dog and noticed a bunch of signs for the same company that fixed "hail & wind damage". Next thing I know a guy working for the company came by and asked if I wanted them to look at my roof. I said my roof is only 3 years old and is in perfect condition. He looked up and said, yeah it is pretty new. Gave me his card in case I wanted to reach out in the future. This needs to stop because all of our insurance rates are gonna go through the roof!

[phoreal]

How about they remove the lawyers billable multiplyer, oh wait because it was written by lawyers

[swimgirl]

Love how the Florida gov is on the insurance side rather than our side…

[patrickbagnano]

I am a Florida license property adjuster that Now works for a local restoration company. This is true about the roofing companies. I get many requests from insurance companies to go look at properties where roofing companies have said a whole roof has damage and needs to be replaced. I’ve gone up on the roof with the roofing companies representative and found zero damage. Roofing company said their were missing shingles, missing from a wind event a month prior, I walked up there and there wasn’t one shingle missing. I told the representative who was up there with me, who happened to be a young kid to keep his eyes open and don’t get caught up in any BS.

[spinfish]

I have to question why some of these homeowners allow some guy to go up on their roof? To do some kind of inspection. Then to tell the homeowner they need a new roof and insurance will pay... To think the premiums won't go up after a very large claim is just stupid. The only time to file a claim is when Catastrophic Damage HAS occurred, not for preventive maintenance. It's a roofer scam and I think "some" of these homeowners didn't due their part in avoiding it by either getting up there themselves or a 2nd opinion with evidence. Maybe some homeowners were in on it to get a new roof?

[TheRsg]

I have been an agent for 30 years. The changes will not save the market. Expect more insolvent companies and higher rates.

[CoCo-yvhl]

Same happening with car insurance they are charging car note prices when you have no wrecks good standing etc

[timmbos]

companies don't send out their own adjusters to determine damage before a repair can be approved? I'm in TN with State Farm and we couldn't get anything repaired until their adjuster approved it.

[MastersOfMask]

This is a problem that insurance companies had cause themselves. I know that there are scams out there, but most people are forced too hire lawyers because the insurance company fails too pay the required amount to fix what is broken.

[CheekRunner]

Imagine if homes were built with metal roofs instead of some asphalt sheets of paper with gravel sprinkled on

[lacyd]

The roof scammers are out here in New Orleans too. We replaced our roof in 2019 (we paid not the insurance) in 2020 we got hit with a hurricane (New Orleans) nothing happened to the roof but we have non stop roofers knocking on our door to just “give a free estimate. Repeat the next year 2021 when we got hit with a bigger hurricane, our roof wasn’t missing not one shingle and I legitimately had a company come to my door and demand I let them on the roof to “give me a estimate” I told them to get lost. Bunch of scammers, our car insurance rates are the second highest in the Country due to law suits. I don’t even want to think about what would happen if this trend took hold with homeowners insurance. We pay right at $5, 000 a year (350k house) and that’s not including flood.

[nospamallowed]

As a non-homeowner that will be buying a Florida home in the next year I have been observing this issue, and it is clear to me what the real causes for this issue were and the massive disinformation campaign being waged to make us look elsewhere.

- The first cause is the extreme weakness of consumer protection laws in Florida, which makes it possible for companies to fleece consumers and the system with impunity.

- Next came insurance companies that took advantage of this to avoid keeping reserves to pay claims when the inevitable disasters happen, to add all kinds of exclusion and sneaky clauses in their policiees, and worse, their using all kinds of gimmicks to delay and underpay those claims. Of course this led to the need for lawsuits for a high percentage of claims.

- Of course, roofing companies saw this as an opportunity, as homeowners - frustrated with the insurance companies and not wanting to handle the lawsuits themselves - were more than happy to let roofers handle it. With the results we now see.

This all could have been avooided if proper laws protected consumers and forced insurance companies to behave properly.

But our legislators are clearly sold out to those that finance their campaigns and thus are more interested in protecting the profits of insurance companies than protecting consumers... so, we cannot expect any real solutions and should only expect ridiculous increases in insurance premiums... that will stick around even after the crisis ends.


What we really need is for the Federal government to create a couple of semi-government insurance companies (similar in concept to Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae) - for homes occupied by their owners, not rentals nor AirBnbs - that will compete nationally with these insurance companies that abuse homeowners.

[benjaminrobelo]

I went through hurricane Irma. The hurricane blew for the whole night, ripped three large trees in my property. Whoever tells me the roof of my house did not sustain any damage from the storm has never been through a hurricane.

[AFAskygoddess]

In Florida, if you have a 30 year ...or lifetime...written warranty on your roof, you are screwed once it is 15 years old. Better to buy a lower priced roof because the insurance company will make you replace it before it wears out.

[CarStory]

So do the roofing companies ever get charged with fraud or do they get away with this? In 23 years of living here, I never felt like moving out of state until now. We are now have the second highest car insurance in the country too. Since 2020 Florida has become expensive like NY and NJ.

[thrngaming]

Florida car insurance is next due to windshield claims. Coming from a Florida insurance agency owner.