The Restoration Association of Florida (RAF) and home remediation contractor Air Quality Assessors have filed a lawsuit naming Florida Insurance Commissioner, David Altmaier, alleging that he violated the law by enabling home insurers to change consumers' policies.
The lawsuit looks to reverse a recently enacted policy change, and also names two insurers, American Integrity Insurance Company of Florida and Heritage Property & Casualty Insurance Company, as defendants.
The suit claims that American Heritage sought and received approval for a policy change which required policyholders – or a third party to which policyholders would assign the benefits of their claim – to agree to take any dispute to mediation and arbitration instead of to a court. According to the new policy, should a policyholder or assignee hire an attorney to represent them in the mediation or arbitration, the insurer would not be obligated to pay for the attorney's fees, even if the policyholder/assignee wins the case.
The new policy became effective on January 1, 2022 for new policies and on March 1, 2022 for renewing policies. According to the suit, the changes restrict homeowners' rights regarding repair work and also violate Florida's Homeowner Claims Bill of Rights.
You can find the content of the complaint here.
Editor's Note:
In general, policy language must be approved by the state insurance department. The state of Florida homeowners insurance is in crisis with multiple insurers becoming insolvent. A variety of bills have been proposed to help shore up insurers and keep coverage available to insureds.
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