MIAMI – Off the table in this special session is property insurance. Local state lawmakers tell CBS News Miami they’ll continue to work on ways to help homeowners in the regular session in 2024.
They want to build on reforms signed into law earlier this year. But as CBS News Miami’s Joe Gorchow found out, those reforms are a long way from providing financial relief.
He met Jacob Kligman, who lives in Surfside. He owns and operates a business in Hallandale Beach.
Kligman shows off kitchen remodel designs. He gives his clients options. At home, he has no options when it comes to property insurance.
“In the last three years, I think three different insurance companies have dropped us,” Kligman said.
Only one insurance company will write Kligman a homeowners policy. And it’s expensive.
“We pay really high,” Kligman points out.
He says three times what he paid four years ago.
If you live and own in the Sunshine State, you understand.
Florida homeowners pay about 3.5 times the national average for property insurance. In South Florida, it can be nearly five times as much.
“Can I still afford to live in Florida?” asked Dave Feather.
A question Feather says his clients ask themselves every week. From his office in Coral Springs, his agency helps connect people with insurance policies.
“We work three times as hard to get a comfortable result for our clients,” Feather said.
He says there are fewer options left.
“Carrier availability is limited, but rates have doubled and tripled,” Feather said.
“Most homeowners cannot afford year-on-year increases of 30-40 per cent. In some cases, 100 per cent or more,” says Mark Friedlander of the Insurance Information Institute.
He points to four factors that drive up insurance costs. Florida’s weather, too much litigation, the cost of reinsurance for carriers, and the rising cost of repairs nationwide.
Last year’s special session addressed tort reform and reinsurance.
“It was the bill that was needed to put Florida on a path to stability, but we still have a ways to go,” Friedlander said.
The changes, Friedlander said, have attracted five new insurance companies to write homeowners policies starting in 2024.
“We need competition in this market,” Friedlander said. It’s the only way to get pricing under control.
