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Florida Legislature Passes Flood Insurance Reform Bill
The Florida Legislature passed a bill April 24 that gives state residents more affordable options for flood insurance.
SB1094, Flood Insurance, authored by State Sen. Jeff Brandes, R-St. Petersburg, and State Rep. Larry Ahern, R-Seminole, passed the House of Representatives with bipartisan support. The bill passed earlier in the Senate with unanimous support. The bill now goes to Gov. Rick Scott to be signed into law.
"This bill gives Floridians an affordable option that may keep them in their homes, and empowers homeowners to take control of their flood insurance," said Brandes. "Washington has held our homeowners hostage with drastic rate increases, but this legislation shows that Florida is committed to private market flood insurance reform."
"This bill builds on what we passed last year and continues to make the marketplace attractive to all insurance companies which will result in lower premiums," said Ahern. "This outside the box type of legislation challenges the status quo to the benefit of our constituents."
The legislation expands options available under the "customized" insurance policies authorized by SB542 in the 2014 Session, sponsored by Brandes and Ahern.
Under the expanded options, policyholders will be able to choose the amount of coverage they would like to have on their property, such as reducing coverage down to the value of their mortgage or excluding coverage for contents of their structure.
The proposal also encourages new and existing developments through coastal elements of growth management plans to adopt engineering best practices that mitigate flood risk.
>> Let us make sure your costs are as low as possible - send us your current Flood insurance declarations page(s) and elevation certificate(s) for a free review now.
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DATA BREACH / CYBER CRIME... IS YOUR COA/HOA AT RISK?
Does your COA/HOA have a website, hosted or owned? Do you have a link to pay dues online? Does the BOD or CAM have online access to your operating and reserve accounts? Do you pay bills online?
Who is responsible for the security of the data and access security to any of the above? Proper controls may be in place, but if monies or identity are stolen, where can you turn? The FTC says Florida has led the nation in identity theft complaints in each of the past four years. In 2014, Florida's rate was 186 complaints for every 100,000 residents.
Your COA/HOA Crime policy can and should include the Computer and Funds Transfer Fraud options.
An additional Cyber / Data Breach policy may be needed to protect web based and hacker crimes - to cover the costs to respond to a data breach, whether required by law or where someone has been put at risk of harm; costs to defend and resolve claims with regard to the handling of personally identifiable or confidential corporate information; or if a hacker causes damage to digital assets, including websites, programs or electronic data, or steals a program or data, or cyber extortion risks of your data or your website access.
Unit Owners should also consider Identity Theft optional coverage under their HO6 or HO3 policies.
Please contact us to find out more about this growing risk and how you can insure and protect your COA / HOA.
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Discontinuation of the 2005 Citizens Property Insurance Emergency Assessment
The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) has approved Citizens' discontinuation of the 2005 Citizens Property Insurance Emergency Assessment on all commercial and personal lines new business, renewals and policy changes with policy effective dates on or after July 1, 2015. The assessment was approved 2007, as Citizens was cash-strapped from the eight hurricanes that struck the peninsula in 2004 and 2005. There was $1.38 billion collected, according to the OIR. The charge began at 1.4% in 2007 and was reduced to 1% in 2011. It is now being eliminated early due to growth in the number of assessed policies, the OIR said.
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Workers Comp policy - Minimize and Control Risk for your Condo/HOA
No Employee's ? Why an "if any" Florida Workers Compensation policy is a good idea.
Did you know that there is a workers' compensation insurance available even if you have no employees? Maybe you've heard of it and wondered what it was, or you were concerned that it would be too expensive, or hard to get.
An "if any" policy is a workers' compensation insurance policy which is issued on an, if any, basis. That means you, the purchaser, do not anticipate hiring any employees for the entire one-year policy term. The "if any" policy protects you from claims brought against you by someone alleging to have been injured while working for you. Also carries a Voluntary Compensation Endorsement - coverage for all volunteers working on behalf of the Association - including Board & Committee Members in their official capacity.
Sample Pay Outs:
$61.245 Volunteer was shoveling gravel, back strain
$10,482 Volunteer watering plants, snake bite
$252,931 Board Member fell hanging picture, broken ribs
$257,705 Fell off stool, broken right hip
Current Workers Comp "if any" policy is just $706 per year. Can you afford NOT to have this coverage?
Please contact us to discuss any questions you may have regarding an "if any" workers comp policy. Make sure you are protecting the associations reserves. Do not wait for something to happen, it will be too late then.
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QUIET ATLANTIC HURRICANE SEASON PREDICTED FOR 2015
Researchers at Colorado State University have issued a prediction for a well-below-average hurricane season for the Atlantic basin in 2015, forecasting seven (7) named storms and just three (3) hurricanes.
The Project Team further forecast that only one of the three predicated hurricanes would reach major hurricane strength of Category 3, 4 or 5 on the Saffir-Simpson scale, with sustained winds of 111 mph or greater. If accurate, the forecast would be further good news for a property catastrophe insurance and reinsurance sector that has seen relatively benign hurricane losses in both 2013 and 2014.
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