Florida Insurance Council - Covering Florida Since 1962
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel The Senate Banking and Insurance Committee continued their discussion of assignment of benefits during their meeting on February 4, 2019. According to Chair Broxson (R), the Committee will vote on the AOB bill, SB 122, next Monday when they meet. The materials from the February 4th meeting…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel Last week, we reported that HB 541 was filed expanding sinkhole coverage. This week, an identical Senate companion, SB 566, was filed. The bill changes the statutory definition of “catastrophic ground cover collapse.” A possible impact of the proposed definition change is that more damage than under current…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel Rep. Santiago (R) filed HB 561 on January 25, 2019 to restructure the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund (FHCF). No Senate companion bill has been filed yet. Under the bill, the FHCF retention is lowered from $4.5B to $3.2B and the capacity is lowered from $17B to $7B. New coverage…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel This week, Rep. Zika (R), who represents Pasco County which is located in Sinkhole Alley, filed HB 541 which significantly expands the definition of “catastrophic ground cover collapse” used in sinkhole claims. This expansion will increase sinkhole losses in Florida and should concern the property insurance industry. The current…
By: Greenberg Traurig The House Government Operations & Technology Appropriations Subcommittee met on January 23, 2019 to hear several presentations by DFS, the meeting packet can be found here. This Appropriations Subcommittee is responsible for setting the budget of various state agencies, including the Department of Financial Services (DFS). The committee meeting began with the…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel Two AOB bills have been filed in the House the past week. Although they share some of the same language, one is more comprehensive. Language in both bills is similar to language proposed by the House last year. Both bills are filed by freshmen Democrat House members. Neither has…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel During its January 22, 2019 committee meeting, the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee held its first discussion on AOBs and restricting one-way attorney fees to the named insured. The Committee ran out of meeting time before the completing the discussion, so the Chair said the discussion will continue at…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel The Florida Building Commission (Commission) gave the House Commerce Committee an overview of the Florida Building Code (Code), its adoption, and implementation during its committee meeting on January 22, 2019. The presentation can be found here. The process for updating the Code was discussed. According to the presentation, the…
By: Katrina Callaway, FIC General Counsel An insurance omnibus bill was filed last week in the House. HB 301 is sponsored by Rep. Santiago (R), the sponsor of last year’s insurance omnibus bill. A Senate companion has not yet been filed. Although there are several property insurance issues contained in the bill, the following three provisions…