The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation ("FOIR") has issued a report indicating that water claims submitted to insurers of residential property have jumped significantly across the state in recent years.
The FOIR collected data from more than two dozen insurers with homeowners and dwelling fire policies in force as of September 30, 2017. The FOIR said that responding insurers represented approximately 85.5 percent of these policies in force in Florida as of that date.
According to the FOIR, water losses continued to escalate "at an alarming rate." The FOIR found that the frequency of water claims in the most recent two-and-a-half-year period increased 44.1 percent – or just slightly less than the total increase in frequency for the almost six-year period (46.3 percent) studied in the prior 2016 report.
Moreover, the FOIR said, the severity of water losses also increased significantly in recent years. In total, water losses were increasing at a rate of 14.2 percent per year in the prior report. Since 2015, the rate increased to 42.1 percent per year.
The FOIR said that these increases occurred in all regions of the state, but that Southeast Florida and Central West Florida showed the highest rates of increase in water losses. These trends, the FOIR concluded, were evident in rate filings and were "resulting in significant premium increases to homeowners across the state."
Learn more: FOIR Report.