| Keep homes safe with wind inspections
Tami Torres is program administrator of the My Safe Florida Home program, which has mounted a new publicity initiative to let Florida homeowners know they're eligible to receive free wind inspections. The inspectors can let homeowners know whether they're eligible for discounts on their property insurance, and make recommendations for improvements to harden homes and make them eligible for additional discounts. In coastal areas of the state, homeowners even may be eligible for a $5,000 grant to help with the cost of hardening their homes. Torres spoke with Sentinel staff writer Anika Myers Palm.
Question: Even though you're trying to get more people through this publicity initiative now, has the drumbeat of calls seeking wind inspections from My Safe Florida Home remained steady?
Answer: On April 23, 2007 [when we relented], what we found was fewer people were applying.
Citizens' Rates Likely Static
TALLAHASSEE - Legislation to maintain below-market rates of state-run Citizens Property Insurance Corp. and lessen the amount all Florida policyholders would pay in assessments after a big hurricane won approval from Senate lawmakers Tuesday. The Senate Banking and Insurance Committee approved a bill, backed by Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, to reduce the state's Hurricane Catastrophe Fund by $3 billion, which would shed some of the risk the state took on last year to lower premiums. A House committee approved a similar measure last month. But there's a downside: Homeowner rates statewide might go up about 3 percent if the "cat fund," which provides low-cost reinsurance to private insurers, is reduced. The possibility of slightly higher rates is a risk some lawmakers and state officials are willing to take if it means less exposure for the state.
Florida House panel criticizes 2007 homeowner insurance law
In a rare political mea culpa, state legislators said Monday there are deep flaws in the sweeping property insurance law they passed almost unanimously last year to help lower homeowner insurance rates.
The House Insurance Committee held a hearing Monday aimed at building support to reverse last year's legislation.
Among other changes, the 2007 legislation expanded the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund by $12 billion to offer insurers cheaper reinsurance, or backup coverage, and rescinded rate hikes of 21 percent and 56 percent for Citizens Property Insurance Corp., the public property insurer that has become the state's largest.
The legislative package helped lower homeowner rates by a statewide average of about 15 percent. But House insurance committee members say in hindsight, the savings won't be worth the financial risk if a major hurricane strikes, wipes out state funds and leaves almost all Florida homeowners to foot the bill.
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