Property Insurance Bill is presented to the Governor
Senate Bill 408 was presented to Governor Rick Scott on May 11, 2011. Governor Scott has 15 days to act on the legislation. Therefore, now is the time to contact his office to express your opinion on the bill. The bill is large and makes a lot of changes to current law.
A good summary of the bill is located here.
I would argue that the majority of changes contained in SB 408 are anti-consumer -- the sinkhole and claims payment provisions in particular.
Since we know that Governor Scott does not use email, phone calls and faxes are the best way to express your opinions on this pending legislation. The phone number is (850) 488-7146 and the fax number is (850) 487-0801.
Lastly, although this bill is bad, the Legislative Session could have been a lot worse for insurance consumers of Florida. Thankfully, there were a lot of groups representing consumers in Tallahassee and the concerted effort to halt other anti-consumer legislation was successful. Hopefully, we can maintain the momentum.
If you have any questions about legislation, please contact me at sshaw@merlinlawgroup.com.
I encourage everyone reading this to flood the governors office and warn them about the reaction from Floridians when they realize they are paying double for gutted policies.
Also many people will be forced into foreclosure by this bill.