NU Online News Service, Nov. 9, 2:11 p.m.EST

A new report from the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation(OIR) appears to confirm what insurers in the state have beensaying about the problem that sinkhole claims have become.

The findings from 211 insurers that responded to the OIR's recent data call indicate there is an increase insinkhole claims, and the reported sinkholes are coming from placesin Florida where they have not previously been an issue.

The OIR said it asked for sinkhole claim information from 2006to 2010 and got data from a total of 24,671 claims–8,959 openclaims and 15,712 closed claims.

The total cost of the claims was about $1.4 billion andincreased from $209 million in 2006 to $406 million in 2009, thereport says.

Of the claims, 66 percent came from what is known as the"sinkhole belt" consisting of Hernando, Pasco and Hillsboroughcounties. But claims reported from Miami-Dade and Broward countieshave increased 4.2 percent thus far in 2010. Plus, total loss andexpenses are up to about $3 million from less than $250,000 in2006.

Sinkholes are one of a handful of factors driving downunderwriting income for Florida's property insurers, according toreports from the industry and the OIR.

In late September the OIR approved an average statewide homeowners insurance rateincrease for the state-run Citizens Property Insurance Corp. of10.3 percent, partially due to increased costs associated withsinkhole claims.

The industry chose to give up on measures by lawmakers toaddress the sinkhole claims issue in order to give this year'somnibus property insurance bill a better chance of passing. Thebill was supported by legislators but vetoed by Gov. CharlieCrist.