The Florida Legislature’s insurance bailout bill, approved last week, won’t come into effect soon enough to help policyholders and insurance agents who have received no response from United Property & Casualty Co., battling Hurricane Ian.
The lack of information means some Florida homeowners with damaged roofs, blown windows or rain-soaked property also cannot receive help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which requires a proof of denial of insurance claim.
“There was no denial, no communication, nothing from United,” said Sylvia Van Dyke, a resident of Englewood, Fla., who estimates her home suffered more than $60,000 in damage when Ian hit the area on September 28.
Van Dyke filed a protest with United on October 3. Under Florida law, insurers have 90 days to respond. That window is about to close, and so is another: Van Dyke has applied for a loan from the US Small Business Administration, but that, too, is prohibited until the owner can show his level of insurance payment. The SBA deadline is Jan. 12, Van Dyke said. Meanwhile, she is being paid out of pocket for a new roof.
United, which had some 140,000 policies in force in Florida as of November, is now in an orderly second round in Florida and other states after years of heavy underwriting losses. The liquidation process is not insolvency or liquidation. But in some ways, that may be less certain than liquidation, in which the Florida Insurance Guaranty Association would take on most outstanding claims.
Insurance agents are feeling the heat from United’s angry policyholders, but without information from the insurer and regulators, they don’t have many answers.
“It’s very frustrating for agents and for policyholders,” said Laura Pearce, vice president and general counsel for the Florida Association of Insurance Agents. “We received many of the same questions.”
Pearce said the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation may work to transfer some of United’s outstanding claims to the state-backed Citizens Property Insurance Corp.. OIR had not confirmed this as of Wednesday evening and a Citizens spokesperson said company officials had not heard of such a plan.
United officials did not respond to calls and emails from Insurance Journal. OIR officials did not respond to questions about United’s lack of response.
Under Florida law, property insurers are prohibited from canceling homeowners’ policies after a state emergency order is issued for a storm. The cancellation prohibition extends up to 90 days after the repairs. And the OIR’s emergency orders, issued after Ian and Hurricane Nicole hit the state, underscored this and extended the time for policyholders to provide information to their carriers.
A consent order on United’s liquidation plan, approved earlier this month by the OIR, requires United to extend coverage for certain policies that have been set for non-renewal but have not been properly notified. The company must provide 120 days notice for such non-renewals.
The consent order, signed by Insurance Commissioner David Altmaier, who steps down next week, also notes that United must “have qualified and trained personnel to respond to requests from policyholders” regarding cancellations.
But Van Dyke stressed that his situation is not necessarily a cancellation. For now, it’s not even a non-renewal or a denial of a claim.
Van Dyke, a former chief technology officer for the US Patent Office, became so unhappy with United’s lack of response that she sent a letter to the company’s CEO, Dan Peed, last week. The letter accused United of violating his civil rights by preventing him from getting federal assistance for his home.
It is not known how many insured are in the same patch. In its third-quarter financial report, United said it expected to receive up to 30,000 claims from Hurricane Ian, about half of Citizens, the country’s largest property insurer. State. But the carrier did not say how many claims remain unpaid.
Van Dyke’s neighbor in Englewood, Joan Riswold, who insured her home two years ago with United, is doubly frustrated because she’s seen other neighbours, insured by other carriers, quickly get paid their complaints. And even though she complained to the OIR and contacted the staff, little has changed.
Riswold said she was recently able to reach a company representative by phone. The woman informed her that her roof claim had been closed. Riswold was shocked, as she had not received anything in writing from United. The owner said United may have closed the claim because they had their hurricane deductible wrong – $2,000 more than the policy indicates.
“It’s not acceptable, not when we’ve all been through this (hurricane) experience,” she said.
Riswold is a retired nurse who spent most of her career in California. She said that after dealing with California government agencies and insurance companies on various issues, “I’m not used to this blatant disregard for people’s needs.”
She said she had recently taken steps to hire a lawyer.
It’s not just United that may be giving policyholders and agents headaches in the struggling Florida market after the costly hurricane. Pearce said multiple carriers tried not to renew thousands of policies after Hurricane Ian, despite Florida law that prohibits non-renewals while hurricane-related claims are pending.
“I think some carriers feel like they’re going to push the envelope until someone says they have to follow the policy. It’s a big deal,” Pearce said.
And with the sudden resignation of Altmaier and the departure of Deputy Chief IOR Commissioner Susanne Murphy earlier this month, the Regulatory Office may not be able to show force towards United. or other carriers, at least for a few months, agents and policyholders now fear.
Top photo: The roof of Sylvia Van Dyke, damaged by Hurricane Ian. (Courtesy of Sylvia Van Dyke)
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