Yet another home insurance company has decided to call it quits in Florida. Bankers Insurance Group announced they will no longer offer personal home insurance in Florida going forward. This marks the 13th home insurance company in Florida to make this change this year. Many companies that have decided to continue writing new policy are limiting the type of homes they will write. For example, Southern Oak Insurance will only write homes built in 2022 or newer beginning July 30th.

In my opinion, the home insurance market will remain in turmoil, or may even get worse, until the Florida legislature takes stronger action to curb the abuse of the system. Call your state representative to share your personal experience and your fears. They need to hear directly from voters.

We are doing what we can to help homeowners find affordable home insurance coverage. It costs nothing to give us a call at (954) 678-2658 or fill out a very short quote request form at www.justasktim.com/home-insurance-quote.html to see what is available.  It takes less than 10 minutes and you may find a better option is available.

Tony Prete, Owner
Teal Insurance Management

Last week Demotech, the primary financial stability rating company for Florida homeowner insurance companies, sent letters to 27 insurance companies notifying them they would be loosing their A rating and would be downgraded to either S or M.  This is significant because most mortgage companies require an A rating. So, this would require home insureds with these companies to find new coverage or face being force placed by their mortgage provided. If 27 companies were downgraded it would impact hundreds of thousands of home insurance policies across the state.

The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation quickly challenged Demotech's intended downgrades. On Monday Demotech postponed the downgrades to give additional time for review.  That doesn't mean companies will not be downgraded, only that there is a pause while additional information is considered.

We'll keep you updated as the situation continues to develop.  Be sure to visit www.justasktim.com for more information or give us a call at 954-678-2658 if you have a question.

Tony Prete, Owner
​Teal Insurance Management

Yet another Florida home insurance company seems to be having difficulties. United Property and Casualty insurance also know as UPC says it is exploring the opportunity to sell or merge.  UPC is one of Florida's largest insurance companies with about 180,000 policies. UPC reported a $33 million dollar loss for first quarter 2022, $60 million dollars in losses for 2021 and $95 million dollars in losses in 2020.  In 2021 they sold their personal lines business in Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. Additionally, in January 2022 they stopped writing new policies in Florida.

We can only hope UPC a solution to their problems. We've already had Avatar, St. Johns, Lighthouse, Federated National, and Southern Fidelity go out of business. We certainly don't need to add to the list!

If you have questions or need help with your home insurance please call me at (954) 678-2658 or visit us at www.justasktim.com.  You can also shoot me an email at tony@justasktim.com.

Tony Prete, Owner
Teal Insurance Management

Citizens Insurance is growing by about 30,000 policies a month. It should end Q2 at or very close to 900,000 policies and exceed 1,000,000 policies before the end of 2022. I know many homeowners have no other option in this market but Citizens Insurance. What's alarming though is if a major hurricane or series of hurricanes were to hit Florida, Citizens Insurance may exhaust their capital reserves. If that were to happen, by law, Citizens Insurance would then place an assessment on every home and automobile owner in Florida to recoup the balance. This includes homeowners not insured by Citizens. 

Governor DeSantis recently signed new insurance reforms into law. However, Governor DeSantis himself stated these reforms will not have much effect in 2022 and may take until the middle of 2023 to show results. In the mean time several insurance companies are reacting to the new reforms by shutting down new business across Florida , putting new underwriting rules in place to only offer coverage to new homes, cancelling policies to reduce exposure or taking additional double digit rate increases.  Depending on the profile of your home and what part of the state you live in, finding new home insurance can be difficult.  

We still have some options available. Visit us at www.justasktim.com or give us a call (954) 678-2658 to see if we can help you.

Tony Prete, Owner
​Teal Insurance Management

Southern Fidelity Insurance has been ordered into receivership and is being liquidated. Insureds have until July 15th, 2022 to secure new coverage.  The list of companies no longer in business since February of 2022 is now; Avatar Insurance, Lighthouse Insurance, St. Johns Insurance, Mason Insurance, Federated National Insurance Company, and Southern Fidelity.  

Additionally, many companies like Progressive and TypTap Insurance have stopped writing new home insurance policies in Florida. Other companies have stopped writing in certain counties that include Broward, Palm Beach, Miami-Dade, Orange, Seminole and Osceola. These counties account for approximately 35% of the states population.  And others are cancelling policies in these counties to manage exposure.

Now more than every you need a solid independent agent to guide you through the options so you can get the most coverage you can afford.  You can request a quote at www.justasktim.com or give us a call at 954-678-2658.

Tony Prete, Owner
​Teal Insurance Management

​The governor called a special legislative session demanding something be done to improve the home insurance marketplace. Out of that work came two new bills SB-2D and SB-4D. Last Thursday the governor signed these bills into law. The consensus is that it will take 12 to 18 months for these bills to have a meaningful effect, so you can still expect to see home insurance premium increases again later this year and early next year. Here are some highlights of what was passed. These are high level summaries; you can read the bill at www.flsenate.gov....
 
Provisions Relating to Roofs
> Permits insurance companies to offer special deductibles that apply only to the roof.
> Roof deductibles do not apply for total losses related to a covered peril, hurricanes, fallen trees or roof repairs that are less than 50% of the roof.
> When a roof deductible applies, the insurance company can initially pay actual cash value until proof of repairs are provided.
> Prohibits insurance companies from refusing to insure a home with a roof less than 15 years old solely because of the age of the roof.
> If the roof is 15 or more years old, the insurance company is prohibited from refusing to insure the home based solely on the age of the roof so long as a roof inspection, paid for by the insured, determines the roof has 5 or more years of useful life left.
 
Provisions Relating to Claims Handling
> Requires insurance companies to make a physical inspection within 45 days after receipt of a proof of loss, except in claims subject to a hurricane deductible.
>Requires insurance companies to advise the policyholder of the right to request a copy of a detailed estimate generated by the adjuster within 7 days of an adjuster being assigned to the claim. Upon receiving such a request from the policyholder, the insurance company must send the detailed estimate within the later of 7 days after the insurance company receives the request or 7 days after the estimate of the amount of loss is completed.
> Requires an insurance company to provide a written explanation of the basis in the policy in relation to facts or applicable law, for the payment, denial, or partial denial of a claim.
 
There are additional provisions that I have not summarized here related to contractor and public adjuster advertisements, assignment of benefits, notices of intent to litigate, and attorney's fees for suits under assignments of benefits. For full details about those provision go to www.flsenate.gov
 
You can request a quote at www.justasktim.com or call us at 954-678-2658.

Tony Prete, Owner
Teal Insurance Management

​The King Tide is the highest predicted high tide of the year at a coastal location. These are produced by the orbits and alignments of the Earth, Moon and Sun. This year, King Tides are expected from November through December.
 
King Tides can cause local flooding in coastal areas. Should water enter your home, even if it is just a half inch, would your home insurance cover the damage? The answer is No, you would need flood insurance for coverage. Although your home insurance policy may have coverage for water damage, water entering the home from outside is excluded. So, unless you purchase a flood insurance policy you would not have coverage.
 
It is important to understand your home insurance policy coverage. We all want to have a low price, but there is a balance between price and coverage. We help consumers every day find that right balance. Let us help you. You can call or text us at (954) 678-2658 or email us at tony@justasktim.com. You can also just ask a question by Clicking Here.

The homeowner’s insurance market conditions in Florida are becoming exceedingly difficult for consumers, especially in zip codes more prone to hurricane damage or if you live in an older home or have an older roof.  Most homeowners where shocked by last years premium increases or in some cases receiving a non-renewal notice. This year is going to be more of the same with another round of significant premium increases and more non-renewal notices. On top of that, depending on where you live, you may have very few choices as many of the insurance companies have stopped writing new business in those areas or will only write homes with newer roofs. In some cases, homeowners may have to accept less coverage to either afford the premium or possibly even get coverage.
 
For those homeowners with older roofs, the only option may be Citizens.  However, depending on the age of the roof, Citizens will require a licensed roofer certify the number of years of life left on the roof. Citizens requires at least 3 years of life to issue the policy or renew a policy.  So, if a homeowner has a roof certified this year as having 3 years of life left, then at renewal the roof will have to be replaced for Citizens to renew the policy since the roof would now be a year older and have less than 3 years of life left.
 
It is becoming more common for homeowners to ask us if they can lower their coverages to save money. In response, we first work to identify opportunities for discounts, only after exhausting that do, we move to presenting options for lowing coverages.  The coverages we look to most often are: Increasing deductibles, Coverage C (personal contents), Coverage D (loss of use), Coverage E (personal liability), Coverage F (medical payments to others), removing mold and/or sewer back up coverage, and removing coverage for screen enclosures.  In extreme cases we may present the option for changing the roof coverage from replacement cost to actual cash value and/or changing coverage forms all together.
 
We do not recommend homeowners increase their financial exposure by lowering coverage. That said, we believe we are obligated to present the options, explain the financial exposure they are taking, and then let the homeowner make the final decision. We understand the current homeowner’s insurance market conditions are forcing some homeowners to choose between taking on more risk to afford the premium or not being able to have insurance at all.
 
These are trying times that are frustrating homeowners that have paid their premiums for years and never turned in a claim.  Hopefully, the Florida legislature will pass legislation this year that will ease some of these issues.  We will keep you updated.
 
Text or call us at (954) 678-2658 or email us at service@justasktim.com and we will help you walk through the options you have so you can make an informed decision.

Part 1 – water entering your home from outside
Many homeowners are frustrated when they submit a water related claim to their homeowner’s insurance company and the insurance company denies the claim by saying the policy does not cover flood which is true. That said, many homeowners are confused about what defines a flood.  Before turning a water claim into your homeowner’s insurance company ask yourself the following question: did the water come into my home from outside the house or from inside the house?  If you answer from outside the house, then that will most likely be considered flood and not covered.
You might be saying….wait a minute, I do not live near a lake, stream or canal so how can there be a flood in my location? A flood is the result of rising waters. So, let us say there is heavy rain for a few days and the storm drains can no longer accept the runoff.  You may even see water coming up out of the storm drains.  This results in the water rising to a point it enters your home.  That is rising water that enters your home from outside which is also called a flood. Another example might be there is a pump station that serves your neighbor hood to make sure when heavy rains come the water is pumped out before it rises. What if that pump fails?  Then the water will rise and enter your home from outside again resulting in a flood.
Approximately 1/3 of FEMA flood claims occur outside designated flood zones. So, just because you are not in a FEMA designated 100-year flood zone does not mean you will not be the victim of flood damage.  Additionally, approximately 4 out of every 10 flood policies written in the United States are in Florida.  Florida also has the lowest average flood policy premiums in the United States.
Do you have a flood policy? If not, text or call us at (954) 678-2658 or email us at service@justasktim.com. You may be surprised just how low the premium is.

Part 2 – water entering your home from inside your house
For the most part, water damaged caused by water from inside your home is covered by your homeowner’s insurance policy. For example: a busted washing machine house or leaky water valve under the sink. So long as the water entering your home for inside the house is not due to poor maintenance you should be covered by your homeowner’s insurance policy. However, there is one exception. When water enters your home from inside the house due to sewer backup then that is not covered. For example, let us say you have water coming into the home from your shower or tub drain. This would be considered sewer backup and not covered. ( makes sense since the water is originating outside of your home )
Do not worry, for a small additional premium you can add this coverage to your homeowner’s insurance policy by endorsement.  We add this to every homeowner’s insurance policy quote we provide unless the homeowner asks us to take it off.
Has sewer backup coverage been added to your homeowner’s insurance policy?  Just pull out your policy and it will be listed towards the front where all your endorsements are listed. Unsure, text or call us at (954) 678-2658 or email us at service@justasktim.com and we will help you determine if you have this coverage or not.