Section 627.4133, Florida Statutes, Notice of Cancellation, Nonrenewal,or Renewal Premium, (2) With respect to any personal lines or commercial residential property insurance policy specifies 90 days shall be given not 45 days.
Here in New York, insurance carriers are bound by a 2% rule where they can only non renew 2% of the number of policies written in a particular territory as put through by NYS law. The carriers can non renew for any reason but do mostly for frequency of claims when it comes to adverse weather. They cannot single out one policy/one home where a catastrophic event occurred like a hurricane.
during my 34 year career with a prominent property and casualty company, i always tried to be clear on facts. not only because it was the prudent thing to do, because i had continuously gotten comments from friends & others, which were so erroneous it actually upset me. the use of the word dropped in this article is erroneous and misleading. there are two thing which happen when your coverage is discontinued. you are either cancelled or you are non-renewed. not dropped. quit misleading people with verbage that is garbage. every state has a cancellation/non-renewal law. check it out. companies are supposed to abide by them.sometimes they don’t. getting caught is the key there. maybe there are illegal non-renewals happening out there? maybe. if so, i hope the company gets caught. perhaps there are illegal cancellations happening out there. i hope not. if so, i hope the companies get caught. if people are being dropped, i hope they don’t get hurt. there is no provision in the law for being “dropped”.
Quoting an attorney on an insurance matter takes away any credit the article may have, in my opinion. I am guessing this attorney is not employed by any insurance company since he is not aware of Florida Statue 627.4133(2b) which says a non renewal notice must go out 90 days NOT 45 days before the expiration date for personal or commercial residential dwelling policies.
Guaranteed renewal is not a provision you see on P&C policies. A company may non-renew a policy for ANY valid reason, they do not DROP anyone. A valid reason could include “reduction to catastrophic exposure”. There is currently NO moritorium on companies exiting the Florida marketplace. The moratorium put in place after Hurricane Andrew in 1992 expired 3-4 years ago and was not reinacted by the Florida legislature. Look for it to come up in the future again. The most important fact to this story is there is not one case cited and not one company listed as being involved in “DROPPING” customers. Has it really happened yet? Since the CFO of Florida pushed thru an emergency order prohibiting cancellations or non renewal for ANY reason, from being issued until November 30th. The order also required any non renewal that had already been issued to be effective anytime after August 10th must be reinstated and extended until November 30th or a renewal offer issued for the full renewal term. People need to realize that insurance is not a right, it is a priviledge if you can afford it. The government does not require any insurance company to sell you homeowners insurance because you WANT it, insureds must also accept the responsibility to READ the policy, yes even the fine print. It is not that difficult. And the media should check things out before they publish or broadcast inaccurate garbage. Some would actually call it lies.
“Cancelled”–“Not renewed”–sounds like “dropped” to me. My grandmother is “not among the living”–sounds like “dead” to me. Why do some Insurance companies not abide by the State law as stated? Would they take a chance a policy-holder would be to scared, or not have the resources to take them to court. Why should people have to worry about going to court to bring insurance companies to compliance–Why don’t you guys police yourselves and explain your policies (negative aspects as well as positive) very, very, very, thoroughly before having the policyholder sign. All you want to do is sell, sell, sell. You guys create your own problems and misperceptions with people. Next time you get upset, just go look at yourself and your industry in the mirror and think about how well you inform all potential customers you deal with (does Prudential churning not come to mind), not to mention the the out and out companies who don’t or won’t comply with the State law (since when do the word ethics, honesty and integrity), come in to play with this industry anyway?
The upsetting part is that so many times lawyers don’t let the facts get in the way of their smear campaign. There has not been a single homeowner policy cancelled, non renewed , or dropped since a few days before Charley (8/13). As a matter of fact this applies even if there was a preexisting non renewal already issued prior to that time that would take effect after 8/13. Companies that were for example non renewing due to their departure from the State, had to reinstate and renew. There have been policies cancelled for non payment, but even those claims had to be paid on with premiums owed deducted. This is not just for Homeowners, but everything. I am in Florida and had Clients hit all 4 times (sometimes the same client 2 or 3 times). Our Industry should be applauded for its quick response. We are proud of our response just like we are proud of our utility workers, phone companies, and our entire State Government for dealing with the unthinkable. Everyone had plans for a severe hurricane…..but 4? Please don’t ever run an article by an attorney trying to scare everyone without checking the facts. Did Dan Rather give you this article?
Please lets remember that insurance bought and sold AT WILL. There is no gun pointed at either the purchaser or the sellers head. It’s that simple. Remember the FREE MARKET SYSTEM econ 101………And to all of the Trial Attorney’s that read this post…..SCREW OFF, Good day.
MattO
In Texas, the only way a home policy can be non-renewed for claim is if the insured files more than 3 non weather related claims in the past 3 years, so if someone gets hit by 4 hurricanes in Texas, they still can’t be cancelled even if they’ve also had 2 other non-weather claims in the 3 years. That’s 6 claims in three years, and no non-renewal. Florida should probably think about something like that to protect the citizens there who’ve been hit by multiple storms.
(Of course, this isn’t word for word from the Texas insurance code, just a general overview.)
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Before you write something in an article as fact, you might want to do a little research. Please refer to Section 627.4133(2)(b), Florida Statutes.
Section 627.4133, Florida Statutes, Notice of Cancellation, Nonrenewal,or Renewal Premium, (2) With respect to any personal lines or commercial residential property insurance policy specifies 90 days shall be given not 45 days.
Here in New York, insurance carriers are bound by a 2% rule where they can only non renew 2% of the number of policies written in a particular territory as put through by NYS law. The carriers can non renew for any reason but do mostly for frequency of claims when it comes to adverse weather. They cannot single out one policy/one home where a catastrophic event occurred like a hurricane.
during my 34 year career with a prominent property and casualty company, i always tried to be clear on facts. not only because it was the prudent thing to do, because i had continuously gotten comments from friends & others, which were so erroneous it actually upset me. the use of the word dropped in this article is erroneous and misleading. there are two thing which happen when your coverage is discontinued. you are either cancelled or you are non-renewed. not dropped. quit misleading people with verbage that is garbage. every state has a cancellation/non-renewal law. check it out. companies are supposed to abide by them.sometimes they don’t. getting caught is the key there. maybe there are illegal non-renewals happening out there? maybe. if so, i hope the company gets caught. perhaps there are illegal cancellations happening out there. i hope not. if so, i hope the companies get caught. if people are being dropped, i hope they don’t get hurt. there is no provision in the law for being “dropped”.
Quoting an attorney on an insurance matter takes away any credit the article may have, in my opinion. I am guessing this attorney is not employed by any insurance company since he is not aware of Florida Statue 627.4133(2b) which says a non renewal notice must go out 90 days NOT 45 days before the expiration date for personal or commercial residential dwelling policies.
Guaranteed renewal is not a provision you see on P&C policies. A company may non-renew a policy for ANY valid reason, they do not DROP anyone. A valid reason could include “reduction to catastrophic exposure”. There is currently NO moritorium on companies exiting the Florida marketplace. The moratorium put in place after Hurricane Andrew in 1992 expired 3-4 years ago and was not reinacted by the Florida legislature. Look for it to come up in the future again. The most important fact to this story is there is not one case cited and not one company listed as being involved in “DROPPING” customers. Has it really happened yet? Since the CFO of Florida pushed thru an emergency order prohibiting cancellations or non renewal for ANY reason, from being issued until November 30th. The order also required any non renewal that had already been issued to be effective anytime after August 10th must be reinstated and extended until November 30th or a renewal offer issued for the full renewal term. People need to realize that insurance is not a right, it is a priviledge if you can afford it. The government does not require any insurance company to sell you homeowners insurance because you WANT it, insureds must also accept the responsibility to READ the policy, yes even the fine print. It is not that difficult. And the media should check things out before they publish or broadcast inaccurate garbage. Some would actually call it lies.
Paul needs to start drinking water out of a fresh bottle.
“Cancelled”–“Not renewed”–sounds like “dropped” to me. My grandmother is “not among the living”–sounds like “dead” to me. Why do some Insurance companies not abide by the State law as stated? Would they take a chance a policy-holder would be to scared, or not have the resources to take them to court. Why should people have to worry about going to court to bring insurance companies to compliance–Why don’t you guys police yourselves and explain your policies (negative aspects as well as positive) very, very, very, thoroughly before having the policyholder sign. All you want to do is sell, sell, sell. You guys create your own problems and misperceptions with people. Next time you get upset, just go look at yourself and your industry in the mirror and think about how well you inform all potential customers you deal with (does Prudential churning not come to mind), not to mention the the out and out companies who don’t or won’t comply with the State law (since when do the word ethics, honesty and integrity), come in to play with this industry anyway?
The upsetting part is that so many times lawyers don’t let the facts get in the way of their smear campaign. There has not been a single homeowner policy cancelled, non renewed , or dropped since a few days before Charley (8/13). As a matter of fact this applies even if there was a preexisting non renewal already issued prior to that time that would take effect after 8/13. Companies that were for example non renewing due to their departure from the State, had to reinstate and renew. There have been policies cancelled for non payment, but even those claims had to be paid on with premiums owed deducted. This is not just for Homeowners, but everything. I am in Florida and had Clients hit all 4 times (sometimes the same client 2 or 3 times). Our Industry should be applauded for its quick response. We are proud of our response just like we are proud of our utility workers, phone companies, and our entire State Government for dealing with the unthinkable. Everyone had plans for a severe hurricane…..but 4? Please don’t ever run an article by an attorney trying to scare everyone without checking the facts. Did Dan Rather give you this article?
Folks,
Please lets remember that insurance bought and sold AT WILL. There is no gun pointed at either the purchaser or the sellers head. It’s that simple. Remember the FREE MARKET SYSTEM econ 101………And to all of the Trial Attorney’s that read this post…..SCREW OFF, Good day.
MattO
In Texas, the only way a home policy can be non-renewed for claim is if the insured files more than 3 non weather related claims in the past 3 years, so if someone gets hit by 4 hurricanes in Texas, they still can’t be cancelled even if they’ve also had 2 other non-weather claims in the 3 years. That’s 6 claims in three years, and no non-renewal. Florida should probably think about something like that to protect the citizens there who’ve been hit by multiple storms.
(Of course, this isn’t word for word from the Texas insurance code, just a general overview.)