Citizens Property Insurance Corporation’s president Barry Gilway and members of its board recently expressed concern that increased water damage claims and the “assignment of benefits” issue could adversely affect Citizens’ depopulation efforts. Water damage claims and the AOB issue are leading to rate increases, particularly in in South Florida where the issues are most prevalent. […]
Insurance Consumer Advocate Sha’Ron James recently told the House of Representatives’ Banking & Insurance Subcommittee that the assignment of benefits issue is a priority for her office in the 2016 legislative session due to the adverse impact it is having on consumers. While she indicated that her office is still evaluating the issue and is […]
The First District Court of Appeal has issued its second opinion on assignment of benefit issues in recent weeks. In its most recent opinion, the court in United Water Restoration Group, Inc. v. State Farm Florida Insurance Company found that a county court had improperly dismissed United Water’s complaint based on coverage issues raised by […]
The Fourth District Court of Appeal recently issued three opinions that compound the concerns of insurers dealing with increased claims costs due to assignments of benefits. This latest setback follows an earlier decision of the Fifth DCA rejecting an insurer’s argument that post-loss assignments should be prohibited based on a contractor’s not having an insurable […]
Bills in the Senate and the House of Representatives relating to the assignment of benefits under insurance policies, or AOB as it has been called, have stalled in committees in the respective chambers. Senate bill 1064 was on the agenda for last week’s Senate Judiciary committee meeting, but the committee had a lot of bills […]
The Fifth District Court of Appeal upheld an assignment of benefits against a claim that the assignee lacked an insurable interest. In Accident Cleaners, Inc. v. Universal Insurance Company of North America, the Fifth District reviewed a trial court’s dismissal of Accident Cleaners’ complaint against the insurer. Accident Cleaners took an assignment of rights under […]