The Home Insurance Guru

Please call L & S Insurance at 1-888-244-7400 for free quotes on Home, Auto, Flood, Private Flood, Business & Commercial & life & Financial products as well. Look at this winter with more rain than ever before and 3-4  Tornados already this year which is also unprecedented. The rains in Boca flooded the town Center Mall & FAU, if you think you do not need Flood Insurance think again. Florida, no matter where you live is a flood zone! If you live 40 miles in you are on top of the Everglades or lake Okeechobee so you are always near water. It dopes not have to be tidal waters as water comes into the home quite easily from underground, that is called seepage and that is Flood. No policy,. no coverage and if you are in the low risk zone X, then the coverage is also very inexpensive. Not having the coverage when you need it most will be a shame. We can now also help you save money with Private flood so please call us to find out more. Please enjoy the full article below!

http://realestate.heraldtribune.com/2016/03/23/flood-insurance-is-getting-expensive-but-can-you-afford-to-be-without-it/

You can save so much money on Flood and the policy is written on company paper. This means it is covered by FIGA and the Florida Cat Fund . HCI also has this product  reinsured with Berkshire Hathaway so we know it is very secure and safe!! Please call L & S Insurance at 1-888-244-7400 for free quotes on Home, Flood, Private Flood, Auto, Business & Commercial & Life & Financial products as well.

Florida Insurer Launches Company Offering Admitted, Standalone Flood Coverage

Paresh Patel, HCI Group chairman and CEO, said the timing is right to start the company, which he says is the first licensed flood insurer in Florida.

“As we are getting more expansive in our offering of flood policies it made sense to put it in a separate vehicle,” Patel said. “Because of the technology and the way TypTap works, it’s a different way of doing things than in the past.”

Patel said the coverage is sold through agents on the TypTap website. The online purchase process has been simplified through TypTap’s backend technology and only requires potential customers to answer three questions, then pick an agent from a dropdown menu to finish the policy purchasing process.

Please enjoy the full article below!!

http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/southeast/2016/03/23/402752.htm

In a nutshell, Citizens will reduce coverage for water loss claims among other things to curb claims! Private Insurer’s will raise rates next year significantly which will cause some to go back to Citizens when the rates go up! This will have a big counter affect for depopulation!!

Please call L & S Insurance at 1-888-244-7400 for free quotes on Home, Flood, Private Flood, Business & Commercial, & Life & Financial products as well. Please enjoy the full article below.

http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/southeast/2016/03/17/402197.htm

Please call L & S Insurance at 1-888-244-7400 for quotes on Home, Auto, Flood, Private Flood,Business & Commercial, & Life & Financial products as well.

Please be sure to call L & S Insurance at -1-888-244-7400 for quotes on Home, Auto, Flood, Private Flood, Business & Commercial & Life & Financial products as well. The new Maps are still Preliminary and could be updated again. The new changes will start in September if all goes as planned  and about 76,000 homes will need to start to have a new Flood Policy where one was not needed before. Most people do not understand the risk of Flood, but ask people in N.J. from Hurricane Sandy and they will tell you otherwise. Please be prepared and check your information now. You can call Lee at L & S at x-209 for a class at your office soon to review the maps with your agents.

http://maps.co.palm-beach.fl.us/gis/floodzones.aspx?

Please call L & S Insurance at 1-888-244-7400 for free quotes on Home, Auto, Flood, Private Flood, Business & Commercial & Life & Financial products as well.

New Updates!!! we have 2 carriers who will also now take Poly Pipes, but not provide coverage for water damage claims. Not a great scenario, but another option to help your closings happen.

Poly Pipes which are grey and look like White PVC, but are Grey have been a huge problem since 2012. No company would accept them and they are a problem for any homeowner. Buyers need to beware that they can and will burst with water damage claims and then they can be 2-3 in a  year once it starts. sellers need to know that a buyer will need to replace them at some point so prices should be adjusted when a home is sold or purchased.

Citizens Insurance will now write a policy on a home that is less than 30 years of age and no history of any water damage claims!!! The claim issue is a huge one since the computers called CLUE will verify a claim has occurred and will cause issues after the policy is issued and after closing. I know most of you do not want issues with your deals and clients so please be careful. The pipes were used in the years 1080-1994 and 30 years old is 1986 and newer which covers most of those years!! The pipes still need to be dealt with, but at least most closings can now happen as long as the pipes are fully disclosed and the cost of repairs is reflected in the sales price. I hope this helps most of you and please remember to give us a call. Please call L & S at 1-888-244-7400 for quotes on Home, Flood, Auto, Business & Commercial, & Life & Financial products as well. Please come to one of my Insurance lunch and learn classes soon or let me know if you have interest in having me do a class at your office.

Thank you and happy selling!!
Lee the HomeInsuranceGuru!!

Please call L & S Insurance at -1-888-244-7400 for Free quotes on Home, Auto, Flood, Private Flood, Business & Commercial & Life & Financial products as well.

South Florida property owners can expect property insurance rates to increase because the Florida Legislature failed to enact laws to curb abuses by contractors and trial attorneys, two insurance industry trade associations are saying.

In a statement released as the session drew to a close last week, the Florida Property & Casualty Association blamed Sen. Miguel Diaz de la Portilla, R-Miami, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, for failing to bring up a bill that would have “prevented a handful of vendors and their lawyers from stealing homeowners’ insurance policy rights and using them to pad their own pockets.”

“Now, as a result, even without a hurricane making landfall, property insurance rates are set to skyrocket for all Floridians while a small group of greedy vendors and their lawyers get rich. Florida deserves better,” the association said.

Diaz de la Portilla, in an interview Monday, shot back at the insurance industry, saying he brokered a compromise bill intended to rein in abuses. But the industry “showed their true colors,” he said, by rejecting the compromise because it did not eliminate the ability of homeowners to assign benefits of their policies to third-party contractors.

Please read the full article below;

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/consumer/fl-aob-reforms-die-again-20160314-story.html

Please call L & S Insurance at 1-888-244-7400  for free  quotes on Home, Auto, Flood, Private Flood, Business & Commercial & Life & Financial products as well.

New flood zones in Palm Beach County could go into effect by year’s end.

Appeals of flood zone designations in preliminary maps released by the Federal Emergency Management Agency in 2014 have been resolved. FEMA plans next month to send resolution letters to the county and various cities that requested changes, FEMA spokesman Danon Lucas said Wednesday.

Barring further appeals, new Flood Insurance Rate Maps for the county and its cities could take effect by December, Lucas said.

Ken Todd, Palm Beach County‘s water resource manager, says he hasn’t seen the revised maps yet. “They’re supposed to show us the maps next month,” Todd said. “I haven’t seen what they changed. Assuming they’ve changed everything we asked for, there won’t be any issues, but we don’t know what they’ve changed.”

The public won’t get a look at the revised maps until at least a month after the appeal resolution letters go out, Lucas said in an email.

“After receiving the letters, the community has 30 days to review and comment on the resolution letter(s),” he said. “Comments received during this phase must be addressed before Letters of Final Determination are sent. If the community does not submit further comment, the (Letters of Final Determination) are issued. The revised maps will then be available to the public.”

Release of the maps will be followed by a six-month “adoption and compliance period” in which communities will vote whether to adopt the maps.

Adoption of the final maps by the county and all of its cities is virtually guaranteed, Todd said, because any entity that does not adopt them won’t be able to use FEMA’s flood zone designations, and its residents won’t be able to obtain coverage from the National Flood Insurance Program.

The federal program was created in 1968 to offer communities affordable rates in exchange for commitments by those communities to adopt and enforce floodplain management regulations.

But rates can differ sharply for homes in low-risk and high-risk flood zones. And recent reforms aimed at helping the program overcome $24 billion in debt subjected primary homes in higher risk zones to annual rate increases of up to 18 percent. Owners of second homes can see increases up to 25 percent.

Flood insurance is required for any home in a high-risk flood zone with a mortgage backed by the federal government (Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac), and by some private banks.

A county analysis found the preliminary maps would have added 62,041 parcels into mandatory flood insurance zones while removing 35,891 parcels. By comparison, Broward County‘s new flood map, finalized in 2014, removed 266,000 parcels form mandatory flood insurance zones and added 31,000.

Appeals by the counties, West Palm Beach and several other cities claimed that flood risks for thousands of properties in the central region of the county were overestimated.

They asked that FEMA instead use land and water elevation estimates from a study completed last spring by the South Florida Water Management District.

Those estimates show that peak water elevations after a particularly severe storm would be lower than FEMA estimated in areas affected by the C-51 canal, which runs through the middle of the county between Lake Okeechobee and the Lake Worth Lagoon.

In a couple of areas, the difference is as much as a foot, Todd said in August. In others, it’s 6 inches. Altogether, residents would save millions of dollars on flood insurance premiums if FEMA granted requests to use the newest elevation study.

A report issued by FEMA in 2014 said the C-51 canal affects West Palm Beach, Cloud Lake, Glen Ridge, Greenacres, Haverhill, Lake Clarke Shores, Lake Worth, Loxahatchee Groves, Palm Springs, Royal Palm Beach, and Wellington, along with unincorporated areas.

Affected properties are not just adjacent to the canal, but throughout the network of secondary canals, tertiary ditches and drainage pipes. Todd said.

too Much PAC money I guess. Please call L & S Insurance at 1-888-244-7400 for free quotes on Home, Auto, Flood, Business & Commercial, & Life & financial products as well.

It’s looking like Florida lawmakers will not provide resolution for two controversial issues currently facing the Florida insurance industry, this year at least.

With just three days left in the 2016 Florida Session, legislative attempts at addressing the rising cost of water damage claims from the misuse of assignment of benefits and regulating and mandating insurance requirements for the Florida ridesharing industry have stalled.

It’s looking like Florida lawmakers will not provide resolution for two controversial issues currently facing the Florida insurance industry, this year at least.

With just three days left in the 2016 Florida Session, legislative attempts at addressing the rising cost of water damage claims from the misuse of assignment of benefits and regulating and mandating insurance requirements for the Florida ridesharing industry have stalled.

***********Meanwhile, insurers and their advocates warned that Florida homeowners can expect rate increases if something isn’t done to deal with “skyrocketing water losses,” particularly in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties.************

Please enjoy the full article below;

http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/southeast/2016/03/08/401275.htm

Please call L & S Insurance at 1-888-244-7400 for free quotes on Home, Flood, Auto, Private flood, Business & Commercial & Life & Financial Insurance products as well.

The frequency and severity of water loss claims in Florida have increased every year since 2010, according to data call results from the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR). During the same period, there has been a 10 percent increase in severity for claims with an assignment of benefits, (AOB).

The data call was ordered by OIR last October in response to what some in Florida are calling a troubling trend with AOB claims for water losses. OIR then analyzed the data in an effort to shed light on if the AOB provision is being misused in the state.

OIR examined 259,742 water claims – damage that resulted from water pipes bursting, leaks from appliances, etc. – from the top 25 insurers in the state. The reporting insurers, which make up 80.5 percent of the Florida homeowners market, submitted detailed claims information for homeowners (HO3) and dwelling fire (DF) policies in force as of June 30, 2015. The claims were to have closed between Jan. 1, 2010 and Sept. 30, 2015.

Insurers were also asked to include summary information by county for closed claims during that same period for all other perils (AOP), excluding hurricane and sinkhole, as well as open claims as of Oct. 1, 2015 for both AOP and water/roof claims.

The report said that, based on the analyzed data, the frequency of water loss claims has increased by 46 percent since 2010, equaling an average annual increase in frequency of 8.3 percent each year. The severity of water claims has increased 28 percent since 2010, representing an annual increase of 5.4 percent.

OIR’s report states that the combined impact of changes in frequency and severity result in an average increase in water losses of 14.2 percent each year.

State-backed Citizens Property Insurance Corp. has claimed that the increase in losses has been especially significant in Southeast Florida, but that it is starting to be felt in other regions as well. OIR’s data backed up this claim, saying Southeast Florida experienced a 43 percent increase in water claim frequency and a 39 percent increase in claim severity.

Statewide, claims frequency and severity was not as high but the frequency still increased by double-digits for all regions. Severity increased by double-digits in all regions as well, except for North Central Florida and Northeast Florida, which only saw single-digit increases.

“If there were no other perils covered under the policy and no changes in expenses from year to year, an insurer may need to increase its rates by 10 percent or more each year (depending on the insurer’s expenses) just to break even due to the increase in water losses,” OIR said.

Please enjoy the full article below.

http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/southeast/2016/03/02/400663.htm