Florida’s newly minted Hurricane Ian Chief Recovery Director says insurance companies will be held accountable.
Insurance Consumer Advocate Tasha Carter was appointed to her new role by C.F.O. Jimmy Patronis last week.
Six months after Hurricane Ian slammed into southwest Florida, daily battles with your insurance carrier have become common for many in the Sunshine state.
Of the nearly half a million residential insurance claims filed since Ian, less than have were paid out. Carter wants to know why.
“There could be some legitimate reasons why claims are being closed without payment. But we definitely want to have some additional information, to ensure that companies are not closing claims without payment when they should be paying those claims,” said Carter.
There are multiple state agencies looking into reports of purposeful underpayments by insurance companies. Carter says in her new role she’ll deal directly with insurance companies to ensure customers get their claims paid.
“Whether that’s investigating allegations of insurance fraud. Whether that’s investigating instances where insurance companies close claims without payment,” said Carter.
If your insurance company gave you less money than what your contractor estimated, Carter says to go line-by-line on the itemized damage claims.
There’s one area, she says, that has the most common discrepancies.
“A lot of times we see a difference, as it relates to, the quality of material,” said Carter.
Patronis has also announced plans to hold another insurance village in southwest Florida this month. At the previous event, hosted in January, insurers paid out $5.4 million.
