[kkingston57]

Originally Posted by lawgolfer

Assignment of Benefits (AOB) by which a homeowner transfers his right to make a claim against his insurer, are now illegal in Florida. This, along with several other new laws, were part of the "reforms" enacted by the Legislature and signed by Governor DeSantis in 2023.

By eliminating AOB's as well as the automatic award of attorney's fees, the legislature has prevented the fraudulent activities of certain roofers and their unscrupulous attorneys in which a roofer would sign up the homeowner; take an AOB; replace the roof before the insurer even knew of the claim; and, file a lawsuit in which the roofer would be paid and the attorney receive a fee award that would exceed the amount awarded the roofer.

Since 2017, because of these fraudulent activities, ten homeowner insurance companies have been forced out of business in Florida, five alone in the worst year, 2022. Several multi-state insurers have pulled out of Florida or severely limited the number of policies they will write in Florida. Every homeowner's insurer in Florida has been forced to raise its premiums by significant amounts.

I'm confident that the reforms enacted by the Legislature will, eventually, restore order to the insurance market in Florida and reduce the premiums or, at least, reduce further increases in the premiums. Unfortunately, this will not happen overnight. For one thing, some of the reforms may not be retroactive, and there are still thousands of pending lawsuits brought by the roofers and their attorney's.

Good information especially the part regarding AOB contracts. Was in the biz and the legislator changed law after retiring. Saw several cases where in contractor had 150K(from an AOB contractor) estimate and many other contractors could do the same job for 75K