yourEadvisor.com

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Moving on! Fingers crossed.

“I think insurers are probably most concerned with regards to AOB abuse in homeowners’ insurance. Most typical homeowners’ insurance companies will cover water damage claims. If the piping in your home suddenly springs a leak, you, as an insured, have an obligation to get that leak fixed as quickly as possible. You call up a contractor who asks you to sign an AOB. Some contractors might then be abusing that AOB by doing a poor job or an overly expensive job and then billing the insurance company an excessive amount.”

Insurers who choose to dispute inflated AOB bills are up against it in Florida’s unique legal system because it tends to reward plaintiff attorneys. If the insurance companies fight in court and lose, they must pay compensation to the plaintiff’s attorneys, but the opposite is not true if the insurers win their case. So, the cost of the legal expense is prohibitive for the insurance company either way, which is why many insurers opt to settle.

Inflated claims and massive volumes of lawsuits have the predictable result of driving up insurance companies’ legal costs – and insurers are forced to pass those costs on to consumers. In its recently published ‘Assignment of Benefits Report for Florida,’ the III estimates that Florida’s auto and homeowners’ policyholders have paid about $2.5 billion more for insurance over the past dozen years to cover the increase in legal costs triggered by AOB lawsuits."

https://www.insurancebusinessmag.com/us/news/breaking-news/aob-abuse-in-florida-rises-70-in-15-years-163448.aspx

Holy smokes!

"Green and his staff allegedly forged customer signatures on construction documents and insurance claim payment checks that required signatures from both the homeowner and mortgage lender."

"Citizens Property Insurance Corp. reports, “Despite a policy count reduction of more than 56 percent since 2013, the number of lawsuits filed against Citizens grew from 9,146 in 2013 to 13,363 in 2018.” Even more startling, “Private insurance companies have seen litigation nearly triple to 69,300 cases during that same period.”

https://www.heraldtribune.com/opinion/20190409/stander-lawsuits-boost-home-insurance-rates

Florida

Average annual home insurance premium: $1,918

Number of disasters since 1953: 147

Median home value: $233,300

Despite its Sunshine State moniker, Florida is no stranger to dark skies. With over 145 disasters since 1953, Florida is one of the riskiest states in the country to own a home. Don’t be fooled into thinking that living further inland is an automatic escape from risk either—while some of the most notable of those 147 disasters have been hurricanes, many catastrophes have been wildfires that have been spread across the state.

http://www.wfmj.com/story/40294319/home-is-where-the-bills-are-states-with-the-most-expensive-home-insurance