Florida governor Ron DeSantis has signed a landmark insurance bill into law to help reform the state’s property insurance market.
According to Reinsurance News, Senate Bill 2-A is looking to, amongst other things, eliminate one-way attorney fees for property insurance claims, which the state hopes will disincentivise ‘frivolous lawsuits’ as well as realigning Florida’s market to best practices that promote more market competition in the private insurance industry.
In addition, the bill seeks to reduce the burden of excessive and predatory litigation to help bring down costs for homeowners. It will also seek to enhance the office of insurance regulation’s ability to complete market conduct examinations of property insurers following a hurricane to hold insurance firms accountable.
The bill will look to cut timelines for insurers to get payments out the door and back into the hands of policyholders as they rebuild their lives and will build on reforms passed earlier in the year through committing more funding to provide temporary reinsurance support.
DeSantis said: “We have taken an all-hands-on-deck approach to cut through bureaucracy to help our communities recover from Hurricanes Ian and Nicole. I want to thank the Legislature for bringing additional disaster relief to communities across the state as we continue our historic recovery.
“The issues in Florida’s property insurance market did not occur overnight, and they will not be solved overnight. The historic reforms signed today create an environment which realigns Florida to best practices across the nation, adding much-needed stability to Florida’s market, promoting competition, and increasing consumer choice. I am thankful the Legislature answered the call for meaningful reform.”
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