{"id":430,"date":"2022-10-07T15:53:11","date_gmt":"2022-10-07T15:53:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/diymakerhub.com\/?p=430"},"modified":"2024-05-31T21:12:52","modified_gmt":"2024-05-31T21:12:52","slug":"lawsuits-threatento-swell-ians-price-tag","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/diymakerhub.com\/index.php\/2022\/10\/07\/lawsuits-threatento-swell-ians-price-tag\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawsuits Threatento Swell Ian\u2019s Price tag"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Litigation costs could add between $10 billion and $20 billion to insured losses from Hurricane Ian, adding to the woes of Florida\u2019s already struggling<\/a> homeowners\u2019 insurance market, says Mark Friedlander Triple-I\u2019s corporate communications director.<\/p>\n

Early estimates put Ian\u2019s insured losses above $50 billion.<\/p>\n

\u201cBased on the past history of lawsuits following Florida hurricanes and the state\u2019s very litigious environment, we expect a large volume of lawsuits to be filed in the wake of Hurricane Ian,\u201d Friedlander said in an interview<\/a> with Insurance Business<\/em> America<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Most suits are expected to involve the distinction between flood and windstorm losses. Standard homeowners\u2019 policies exclude flood-related damage from coverage, but differentiating between wind and flood damage in the aftermath of a major hurricane can be challenging.<\/p>\n

Flood insurance is available from FEMA\u2019s National Flood Insurance Program, as well as from a growing number of private carriers.<\/p>\n

Trial attorneys are \u201calready on the ground\u201d and soliciting business in some of the hardest hit areas, Friedlander said. \u201cThis will be a key element in the solvency of struggling regional insurers who are already facing financial challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n

Six Florida-based insurers have already failed this year. Florida accounts for 79 percent of all U.S. homeowners\u2019 claims litigation despite representing only 9 percent of insurance claims, according to figures shared by the Florida governor\u2019s office. Litigation has contributed to double-digit premium-rate increases for home insurance in recent years, with Florida\u2019s average annual home-insurance premium of $4,231 being among the nation\u2019s highest.<\/p>\n

\u201cFloridians are seeing homeowners\u2019 insurance become costlier and scarcer because for years the state has been the home of too much litigation and too many fraudulent roof-replacement schemes,\u201d Triple-I CEO Sean Kevelighan said. \u201cThese two factors contributed enormously to the net underwriting losses Florida\u2019s homeowners\u2019 insurers cumulatively incurred between 2017 and 2021.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trevor Burgess, CEO of Neptune Flood Insurance, a St. Petersburg, Fla.-based private flood insurer, said<\/a> that in all locations pummeled by Ian, the percentage of homes covered by flood policies is down from five years ago. Friedlander\u00a0told\u00a0Fox Weather<\/em><\/a>\u00a0that, while more than 50 percent of properties along Florida\u2019s western Gulf Coast are insured for flood, \u201cinland\u2026the take-up rates for flood insurance are below five percent.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Florida is at particularly severe and persistent risk of hurricane-related flooding, the protection gap is by no means unique to the Sunshine State.\u00a0Inland flooding<\/a>\u00a0due to hurricanes is causing increased damage and losses nationwide \u2013 often in areas where homeowners tend not to buy flood insurance.<\/p>\n

In the days after Hurricane Ida made landfall in August 2021, massive amounts of rain fell in inland, flooding subway lines and streets in New York and New Jersey. More than 40 people were killed in those states and Pennsylvania as basement apartments suddenly filled with water. In the hardest-hit areas, flood insurance take-up rates were under five percent.<\/p>\n

Damaging floods that hit\u00a0Eastern Kentucky<\/a>\u00a0in late July 2022 and\u00a0led to the deaths<\/a>\u00a0of 38 people also were largely uninsured against. A mere 1 percent of properties in the counties most affected by the flooding have federal flood insurance.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve seen some pretty significant changes in the impact of flooding from hurricanes, very far inland,\u201d Keith Wolfe, Swiss Re\u2019s president for U.S. property and casualty, said\u00a0in a recent\u00a0Triple-I Executive Exchange<\/a>. \u201cHurricanes have just behaved very differently in the past five years, once they come on shore, from what we\u2019ve seen in the past 20.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Litigation costs could add between $10 billion and $20 billion to insured losses from Hurricane […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/diymakerhub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/diymakerhub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/diymakerhub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diymakerhub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diymakerhub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/diymakerhub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":431,"href":"https:\/\/diymakerhub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430\/revisions\/431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/diymakerhub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diymakerhub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diymakerhub.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}