The following information was released by The State of Florida today regarding windstorm insurance rates and can benefit every Florida Keys Home Owner.
Newsletter Nov 12th. 2007 |
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Take advantage now by having your home inspected ASAP. The cost of the inspection will be a fraction of the annual insurance break. It's an investment well worth making.
Gary
We are making great grounds on keeping our insurance rates down but once again we need to help FIRM to keep the strength in numbers. I only assume that every one who reads my page every day is already a member of FIRM. If you aren't I urge you to become one. Insurance rates in The Keys will effect everyone one way or another. Our economy, our property values, our industry and our overall Florida Keys Quality of Life are at stake here. You can also view FIRM's website by logging on to http://www.fairinsuranceratesinmonroe.com/ and follow the action being taken. FIRM has a great team and are doing amazing work but once in a while they call on us to help them win the fight. The following is a copy and paste job from an email I received from them asking for my help. I did it immediately and it took me less than five minutes. Please take five minutes of your day as well to help keep that Florida Keys Lifestyle that we all love going.
FIRM - Action Alert *****
This needs to be done today !!
Please send emails on this ****
Headline: We are asking you to please support Senate Bill S 0004A
Copy:
We appreciate you taking a stand for Florida's citizens and to use your
influence to keep all the consumer-friendly provisions from the Senate bill
S 0004A alive!
I am one of the many voters and residents of Florida pleading with you to
do the right thing during your special session on insurance. Skyrocketing
property insurance premiums are driving my friends and neighbors out of
this beautiful state. I do not want to follow them. Please, do not
succumb to the temptations of the insurance lobbyists. Remember that you
represent all the people of Florida who elected you , and we need you to
HELP US!!
Please send e-mails to:
Governor Charlie Crist:
charlie.crist@myflorida.com
and
Lt. Governor Jeff Kottkamp
Jeff.Kottkamp@myflorida.com
Go to these links and send to HOUSE & SENATE also !!
The HOUSE members need to be pushed
http://www.ccfj.net/HOUSEaddresses.htm
The SENATE members need to be thanked for their continued support
http://www.ccfj.net/SENATEaddresses.htm
***Thanks to all our FIRM members who support our efforts !!
robbiekw@bellsouth.net
Robbie Hopcraft
F.I.R.M.
By now I assume all my readers are active members of FIRM or at a minimum are familiar with FIRM and plan to join this week. You can join by visiting http://www.fairinsuranceratesinmonroe.com/ and signing up today. FIRM lobbyists are heading to Tallahassee to continue the fight. One battle at a time we can win the war by strength in numbers. The following article was printed in today's Key West Citizen.
Citizen Staff
Members of Fair Insurance Rates in Monroe (FIRM) will travel to Tallahassee on Tuesday for the special legislative session on insurance reform.
The grassroots group chartered a plane to take about 30 members to the state's capital to join other advocacy groups in support of reforms that would help roll back exorbitant increases in windstorm insurance that have plagued homeowners the past few years.
FIRM President Teri Johnston said the group wants to make sure specific issues facing Monroe County are addressed. She also hopes FIRM will be able to work with other consumer groups, such as Having Affordable Coverage (HAC), a coalition from the Florida Condominium Association, Cyber Citizens for Justice and the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), to have a greater impact on state legislators.
"Some of the issues in many of the consumer groups do not relate to Monroe County, and we think it's vitally important that we're there to represent Monroe County," Johnston said. "The second part of what we're doing is, we're trying to coordinate with the other large consumer groups to have one loud voice."
FIRM, which formed a year ago, also sent several members to Tallahassee last week to meet with legislators and give input while the House and Senate insurance committees hammered out potential legislation to be voted on at Tuesday's session.
Last August, FIRM won a cutback on Keys' wind insurance rates through Citizens Property Insurance Corp., the state's wind insurer of last resort.
State Insurance Commis-sioner Kevin McCarty ordered Citizens, which had filed a rate increase request, to slash premiums from a proposed base rate of $25.40 per $1,000 in coverage to $13.59.
"We hope to remind the Legislature that it's the voters of Florida that give them their jobs, not the insurance lobby," FIRM co-founder Heather Carruthers said prior to traveling to Tallahassee on Wednesday. "We hope to remind them that the crisis has reached such a level that it will drive people out of the state."
Johnston said the group's presence was especially necessary last week in order to educate newly elected officials.
"We had a change in personnel here, and really it's like going back to ground zero and educating them on how devastating these rates can be," Johnston said.
Carruthers said she and other FIRM representatives also had the opportunity to meet with Gov. Charlie Crist and almost every member of both the House and Senate insurance committees.
"Most of the legislators were very appreciative," she said. "By and large, they opened their doors; they listened to us."
Carruthers also spoke to the House Banking and Insurance Committee.
"We've made a lot of progress. The majority of what we call our FIRM Bill of Rights — I think between seven and eight of our main points — are addressed in the legislation. So we feel very great about that." Both the House and Senate bills include provisions for Citizens.
Carruthers said she was particularly pleased that the Senate bill would no longer require Citizens to charge rates higher than the top 20 insurers in the state. The bill requires Citizens to use actuarial rates instead.
The House bill, also named the Insurance Industry Accountability and Consumer Protection Act, proposes that insurers, including Citizens, be required to either pay or deny a claim within 90 days.
Carruthers said she was disappointed that neither bill repealed the "use and file" practice, which allows insurance companies like Citizens to begin charging rate increases before they are approved — or disapproved — by the Office of Insurance Regulation.
The Senate bill also would create a uniform state building code and eliminate the Panhandle exemption, which has less stringent building standards even though it has weathered severe hurricane damage in the recent past.
The new code would include a "Code-Plus" category for buildings that are especially well-built and hurricane-resistant. This could particularly benefit Monroe County, Carruthers said, because many structures here are considered better built compared with many other areas of the state.
amsobota@keysnews.com
