The main property insurance bill, SB 408 by Senator Richter, cleared its second hurdle as it passed the Subcommittee on General Government Appropriations.    Some of the key provisions contained in the property package:

• Our amendment was adopted today which extends the new 3 year time limit on claims to "all" property; previously it only applied to personal lines residential claims. 
• Requires the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund to provide reimbursement for "all incurred losses," including amounts paid as fees on behalf of the policyholder, with exclusions.
• Increases the minimum surplus requirements for residential property insurers to $15 million.
• Allows insurers offering personal lines property insurance to provide written notice of policy changes to their policyholders without having to non-renew an entire insurance policy due to a change in policy terms.
• Requires windstorm and hurricane claims to be brought within three years and sinkhole loss claims to be brought within two years.
• Renames the Citizens High Risk Account the Coastal Account and extends to December 1, 2013, the requirement to reduce the boundaries of the Citizens' High Risk Account (wind-only coverages) if the probable maximum loss is not reduced at least 25 percent from the benchmark.
• Allows an insurer seeking to take policies out of Citizens to do so in 45 days.
• Allows an insurer to cancel or nonrenew a property insurance policy upon a minimum of 45 days' notice based on a finding that the insurer lacks adequate reinsurance coverage for hurricane risk and other financial factors.
• Revises the regulation of public adjusters by placing limits on public adjuster compensation, prohibiting certain statements in public adjuster advertising, and revising the contents of the public adjuster contract.
• Revises what constitutes a sinkhole loss.
• Revises procedures for insurers and policyholders relating to standards for sinkhole insurance claim investigations and revises the neutral evaluation process for sinkhole disputes.
• Provides insurers the option of offering the currently-abused sinkhole coverage which produces huge claims over cosmetic damage instead of mandating it. There has been concern that private insurers and perhaps even Citizens Property Insurance Corporation might no longer provide sinkhole coverage without the mandate.
• Continues mandated coverage for catastrophe ground collapse.
• Provides changes to the procedures pertaining to sinkhole reports by professional engineers or professional geologists and repeals the sinkhole database.

We have drafted and distributed our amendment to allow access to the surplus lines market for commercial risks without doing the due diligence.  Once all the parties have checked off, our plan is to amend the surplus lines bill, HB 1227 & SB 1816, when they are addressed in committee.

The Commercial Deregulation bill, CS/HB 99 passed its second committee as well.  The bill expands last years commercial insurance lines that are no longer under Florida OIR rate regulation.  The bill has no opposition thus far, and is poised to be one of the insurance bills passed this year.

The bill which repeals the insurer report card program, HB 4115, passed its first committee.   The Legislature in 2007 established the insurer report card program, with the Insurance Consumer Advocate required to develop grades for residential insurers based on several factors, but the two most critical were the number of complaints and the timeliness of claims payments. The rule was never implemented as it became controversial with too many unknowns.

The Commercial Parasailing bill, SB 392 by Senator Jones passed the Senate Committee on Environmental Preservation.  The bill requires operators to have at least $1 million in liability insurance for each boat passenger.  There were apparently 7 parasailing accidents in the last 10 years that resulted in 4 deaths, including the tragic case of a woman last September who was killed in Pinellas County when she was dragged onto the beach and hit a volleyball net post.  The new law would require Parasailing rides to be launched from (and return to) vessels rather than land or docks, and could not be operated in fog or windy weather.  In addition to the boat driver, another worker would be required in the vessel to watch the parasailing passenger.  There was testimony against the changes from water sports industry representatives who claims the insurance requirement is a huge item for operators and could cost $10,000 per boat. He said the industry has implemented safety measures but does recognize a need for standards and could support a revised bill, but not in the current form.  We worked with the committee staff and senator Jones office to amend the bill to insure surplus lines carriers would still be eligible to provide coverage.  The original bill draft provided 'only' for Florida licensed companies.  The bill is scheduled to be addressed next by the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee.