CAPE CORAL, Fla. — Months after a major Florida insurance company was declared insolvency, thousands of victims of Hurricane Ian are still waiting on a their insurance payments.
At Tom Paulits’s house in Cape Coral, he sees the damage from Ian everyday.
“We just heard this cracking and commotion and came out this whole section was down on the ground,” said Paulits, referring to part of his celling on his back lanai.
“You could see the wind blowing through it.”
Before the storm Paulits has his property insurance through United Property and Causality Insurance.
According to state records, he was one of about 140,000 customers statewide.
But the company declared insolvency earlier this year, with around 20,000 open claims from the hurricane, according to the Insurance Information Institute.
“It’s kind of insulting,” said Paulits.
After being dropped by his insurance provider, Paulits was put into a force-placed insurance policy by his mortgage holder.
“That jumped our mortgage about $500 a month. Which we can’t afford,” Paulits said.
Meanwhile, they have a $90,000 claim which will eventually be handled by the Florida Insurance Guaranty Association, FIGA.
But that will take time, according to industry experts.
“With UPC going out of business FIGA took over more than 20,000 Hurricane Ian claims. Some of those could be very substantial and above the typical FIGA threshold,” said Mark Friendlander with the Insurance Information Institute.
Friedlander points out FIGA is handling around 20,000 claims from Hurricane Ian, along with claims from the six other Florida insurance companies that went out of business last year.
On top of that, the average cost for all Florida homeowners is going up.
“The average cost to Florida homeowners is going to be around 6 thousand dollars a year. That’s almost four times the US average,” Friedlander said.
For Paulits, that’s a massive increase he’s worried about paying.
“I’m collecting social security. My wife is collecting social security. Financially, it’s going to be a hardship,” said Paulits.
Come July 1, after a new state law goes into effect, Paulits will be able to sign on with the state-backed Citizens Insurance.
But even Citizens, which has the lowest rates in the state, plans to raise rates for homeowner’s insurance.
