Insurers get OK to raise property rates

May 18, 2011

The following article was published in the Daytona Beach News Journal on May 18, 2011:

Insurers get OK to raise property rates

By Tom Knox 

Gov. Rick Scott signed a property insurance bill into law Tuesday that will allow insurers to raise rates up to 15 percent a year to cover reinsurance costs.

Insurance companies heavily lobbied for Senate Bill 408, saying that much-needed changes would decrease fraud and increase competition while making sure the industry is solvent.

The bill requires insurers to keep higher levels of capital surplus and places restrictions on advertising from public insurance adjusters. It also has provisions to reduce sinkhole fraud, including shortening the time policyholders have to file claims to two years. It’s currently five years.

The law also will make policyholders pay up to half of the cost of sinkhole-testing if it is determined that there is no sinkhole.

The law goes into effect immediately.

Find this article here:  http://www.news-journalonline.com/business/real-estate/2011/05/18/insurers-get-ok-to-raise-property-rates.html