The Home Insurance Guru

After much debate and several votes, the bill  will now go to the next level from the Legislative committee. People from all ove the State have gone to speak at these hearings and many of them have been turned away,WHY??? Who are the Legislators in Tall trying to help, the Homeowner’s who pay for the Home Insurance in Florida or the Insurance companies.You could ask Governor rick Scott about that and we know he wants to protect the Insurance carriers. Both have to be satisfied, but that is where this all  becomes very complicated. The bill will cover many issues about SinkHole  where State Farm has been very vocal, Premiums being deregulated, and how and when claims are paid and what the public adjustors can and can’t do. The amount of  lobbying for this is huge on a slow day and must be horrific when the debates get intense and homes are on the line as well as the Florida budget. Please read the full article from Julie Patel of the Sun Sentinal and please call L & S Insurance for all of your Insurance quotes and Home Insurance is our specialty.

http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/business/realestate/housekeys/blog/2011/02/sweeping_property_insurance_bi.html

http://my.e2rm.com/personalPage.aspx?SID=2875605&Lang=en-CA

Please donate some small amount of money and help my daughter raise money through  the University of Florida! This will be helping children from the Shands Childrens Hospital in Gainesville Fl.

Thanks,

Lee Gorodetsky

Like all the other carriers State Farm is being hit hard w/ Sinkhole claims in the hundreds of millions in the last 4 years.According to the OIR in Tall. State Farm is also trying to only reduce premiums by $150 when most reductions from other carriers are double that amount. State Farm agents get a commission %age that is higher than any in the Florida marketplace which is great for the agents and not the consumer. All of this while State Farm makes hundreds of millions on the off shore re-insurance marketplace and all discounts for Home  Insurance have already been removed as well. I guess thay are not such a good neighbor here in Florida. Please call L & S Insurance or ask for a quote on the Blog page as well. Please enjoy the latest update on Satte farm and the Sinkhole issues that face Florida Homeowner’s and the Public adjustors that have made this problem way out of control.

http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/southeast/2011/02/18/187036.htm

A great article taken from the Mimai Herald. Everyone is always complaining about S. Florida and how we slap our necks at any car accident to collect, but sinkhole claims in Central Florida are out of sight!!!!  The average claim is and has been about 130K and the Insurance companies including Citizens  have just been paying too easily, but no more. When the Tallahassee Legislators are finished with this  new bill they have, that will all soon change. The public adjustors and many others including many lawyers are fighting to keep this the way it is, but that will not happen and the Fraud issues and investigations are now going to begin. What a mess for home  owner’s in Florida who now have to pay much higher premiums because of all these fraudulent claims. We can only hope for the best, but please call L & S Insurance for quotes for Home, Auto and Flood insurance to get the best rates available in Florida.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/02/14/2067122/sinkholes-a-new-frontier-of-fraud.html

What does this mean to all of us while we wait for the Legislators in Tall.  to deregulate the entire Home Insurance  business and raise rates w/ Citizens Insurance 55%???  Although this article is about 2  Mobile Home carriers today, a Home Insurance company that wants to raise the rates can do so the first day they make a  decision in what is called Rate and File. The increase is filed and then the Office of Insurance regulation will determine w/ the CFO’s office if the rate increase is ok to approve. If it is, then it has already occured months earlier. If it is declined, then the company has to refund the increases it is expected to receive.By the time this happens, the deregulation bill  being discussed in Tall.will have passed and been signed into law and the increases can be decided by the company anyway. Wow, what are we Floridians in for w/ Home Insurance rates for 2011 and 2012!!!! Please read the article and be sure to contact L & S Insurance for all your Insurance needs.

http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/business/realestate/housekeys/blog/2011/02/insurers_can_raise_rates_befor.html

Sinkhole claims in Florida and landslides in Calif. have caused Mercury Insurance to say no more Home Insurance! They have incurred 19 million in Sinkhole  claims  in Florida with only 8k policy holder’s, but that will soon end as they will all be non renewed. They will all have about 6 months notice which is more than enough and then the sticker shock will hit them.Mercury is still a good car Insurance carrier so we can try to help w/ auto quotes any time. Hopefully Citizens Insurance will not be the only option for them.The only good news is that we at L & S do not have any clients with this carrier for Home Insurance so we can just try to help those in need so remember to call L & S for  Home Insurance quotes for your policy being cancelled by Mercury, State Farm or any other carrier that is cancelling you for any reason. Please read the full article below;

http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/southeast/2011/02/07/183658.htm

Sinkhole, Sinkhole, Sinkhole, this has everyone stumped!!!!! The 2 big issues are  making the coverage optional in sinkhole prone areas like most of Tampa and also preventing claims from being abused. This is no easy task for our lawmaker’s in Tall as the Public adjustors out there are ruthless to try and collect currently. This has caused sinkhole claims to quadruple over the last 4 years.Our new Governor Scott probably thought this would be easier Please call L & S Insurance for a Home Insurance quote w/ flood and wind included and we will shop it out for you w/ over 15 carriers. Please read the full article below as well;

http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/southeast/2011/02/08/183804.htm

To be on the board of Citizens, you should have experince on how to Govern it and that makes sense to me.However, the new Insurance refirm and deregulation bill going through the Florida Congress does not allow a vote if you can gain personally from the vote. How can you be in the business w/ experience to know what you are doing and not have a personal interest. The rate increase last year had 2  obstentions  because of this and the increase passed at the 10% rate.  This will be an issue as the first vote comes up next Monday to get passed the first hurdle. Leave it to The Florida Legislators to have issues like this while trying to fix a  huge problem. Anyway, we will know much more soon and before hurricane season starts so let’s all hope for the best and please contact us for quotes from our 16 carriers for Home Insurance in Florida. PLease enjoy the article from Julie patel and the Sun sentinal;

http://weblogs.sun-sentinel.com/business/realestate/housekeys/blog/2011/02/should_citizens_board_members.html

Not only is this a  28% increase, but this is on top of the 47% increase last year and the 14% loss of  discounts for all Home Insurance policies w/ State Farm. This means when all is said and done by the end of 2012, the rates would have increased nearly 100% in 2  years. This has all happened w/ our Legislators in Tall. who  are  now considering the bill for deregultion  w/ Governor Rick Scott which will allow Insurance compaies to charge what they want for premiums. I will admit that Sinkhole claims are a huge problem for all Insurance companies here in Florida and could need to become a Cat Type claim so the reinsurance carriers can pay that bill.Please read the full article on the State Farm Increase and what this means to you. PPlease contact L & S for all of your Insurance needs at our Blog   HomeInsurance Guru.com

http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/southeast/2011/02/01/182926.htm