The coastline in Steinhatchee remains covered in debris on Oct. 3, 2024, following Hurricane Helene. (Photo by Jay Waagmeester/Florida Phoenix)
Insurance could prove the issue that dominates Florida’s 2025 legislative session, given that lawmakers have filed dozens of bills aimed at reining in homeowners’ insurance premiums and once again hope to repeal the requirement to carry no-fault car insurance policies.
Property taxes
Positioned as one of the most important lawmakers when it comes to insurance is Spring Hill Republican Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, who chairs the committee dealing with that industry. The Gov. Ron DeSantis ally has multiple proposals tackling home hardening against hurricanes and floods and reversing some of the legislative gains won by insurance companies.
“There are still a bunch of bills that have been filed, so we’re going to be going through the bills diligently,” Ingoglia told Florida Phoenix on Monday. “We want to make sure that any bill that winds up being heard in committee is holding insurance companies accountable, but making sure that we are doing everything that we possibly can to reduce premiums for homeowners.”
His most recently filed bill, SB 1740, would require carriers applying to conduct business in Florida to hold reserves of at least $35 million more than they need to cover obligations to policyholders.
Directors, officers, or attorneys of insurance companies that can’t pay their debts would be barred from joining another insurance company in that capacity if they were in their position within five years before the insurer becomes insolvent.
Under Ingoglia’s proposal, the state’s hurricane mitigation grants of up to $10,000 would go toward improvements that would result in a property insurance credit or discount. Republican newcomer Yvette Benarroch of Marco Island is sponsoring the House companion.
The senator also wants the Legislature to assume authority to freeze property taxes for homeowners who elevate and in other ways make their homes more resistant to winds and flooding. Two-thirds passage of that resolution, SJR 1190, in the Legislature would put that question in front of voters in 2026, and it would require 60% approval at the polls.
If voters want to make that change to the Florida Constitution, another bill, SB 1192, which Ingoglia filed on Feb. 25, would freeze property taxes for 20 years for homeowners who elevate their homes.
Pinellas Republican Reps. Adam Anderson and Kimberly Berfield filed the House companions.
Reports and more reports
Demands for more information and transparency are a common thread among the bills lawmakers have filed on property insurance this session.
During the insurance market upheaval following Hurricanes Irma and Michael, insurers raised premiums to cover their losses while their affiliate companies made billions, according to a recent investigation by the Tampa Bay Times. The affiliate companies increased their profits by overcharging the insurers for basic services.
A 174-page proposal, SB 1656/HB 1429, which Tampa Republican Jay Collins and Miami Lakes Republican Tom Fabricio filed on Friday, requires insurers to turn over to the Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) documentation about fees paid to affiliates. The bill also requires the companies to tell residential property policyholders how the costs of litigation, reinsurance, and affiliate fees influence the rate the customer pays.
Former Senate President Don Gaetz — the Republican is once again representing the far western Panhandle in the upper chamber — is taking a similar approach with SB 554. His proposal, sponsored in the House by fellow Panhandle lawmaker Alex Andrade, requires OIR to create a report detailing the financial relationship between insurers and affiliates with at least 10% common ownership and another delving into insurance executives’ compensation.
Gaetz and Andrade also want to reinstate Florida’s old one-way attorney fees, which traditionally awarded litigation costs to homeowners who successfully sue insurance companies. In 2023, the Legislature required both parties to pay for their own attorneys’ fees, one of DeSantis’ priorities.
Across the aisle, Democrats have filed bills limiting property insurance rate increases and creating a trust fund to help people who can’t pay for their insurance. Meanwhile, Democratic House Leader Fentrice Driskell requested that House Speaker Daniel Perez and DeSantis investigate why the state concealed for two years the information the Tampa Bay Times reported.
PIP tussle
Personal injury protection (PIP) is a type of car insurance that pays for medical expenses, lost wages, and other related costs of drivers and passengers injured in automobile accidents, regardless of which driver causes the accident.
Florida drivers are required to carry a $10,000 in PIP coverage on their insurance policies under Florida’s no-fault automobile insurance system, which also requires drivers to purchase $10,000 in property damage liability insurance. Those are minimum requirements and drivers can purchase additional coverage on top of those mandated requirements.
The state’s no-fault automobile insurance laws ban injured parties from bringing lawsuits against at-fault parties to recover noneconomic damages, although there are some exceptions (if a person suffers a permanent loss of an important bodily function; a permanent injury; a permanent scar or disfigurement; or death.)
According to the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles just under 6% of the drivers on Florida roads were uninsured as of February.
The Florida Justice Association, which supports a PIP repeal, notes that a Forbes analysis of automobile insurance rates shows that Florida is the most expensive state for car insurance in the nation. To meet the requirements of the law costs an average $1,529 annually.
The Legislature agreed in 2021 to repeal the no-fault system and the minimum mandated coverages and return to a fault-based system, but Gov. DeSantis vetoed the bill (SB 54). In his veto letter, DeSantis stated at the time that although the “PIP system has flaws,” repeal could have unintended consequences for the market and the consumer.
Perez, who was vice chair of the House Judiciary Committee at the time, voted for the repeal at the time.
Fast forward to 2025 and there’s another concerted effort to repeal the PIP system, and Perez is speaker of the House of Representatives. The vehicles are SB 1256 by Sen. Erin Grall and HB 1181 by Rep. Danny Alvarez.
The bills would abolish PIP and instead require drivers to carry $25,000 in bodily injury coverage for one person and $50,000 for two or more people per incident plus $10,000 in property liability coverage.
Florida Justice Reform Institute William Large is lobbying against the repeal. Large, whose group advocates for lawsuit restrictions, says lawmakers should allow the state’s no-fault laws and PIP to remain in place for at least another three years while lawmakers gather market data. He says the pause would allow the state to ascertain whether elimination of one-way attorney’s fees reduced the costs of automobile insurance.
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