State insurance consumer advocate Sha'Ron James aims to call together the various parties to find answers on an issue that insurers blame for driving up rates in South Florida -- even without a hurricane for more than a decade.
It's a tricky situation for consumers. When a pipe bursts and floods a home, the frazzled homeowner may scramble to find a contractor to clean it up. That contractor may require the homeowner to sign over control of insurance benefits. It sounds routine enough, and besides, who has time to ask a lot of questions or shop around when there's water all over the place?
But insurers say that's when a lot of the trouble starts, because contractors can submit what insurance companies consider to be unjustified and abusive bills for clean-up, repair and restoration work that can run into the tens of thousands of dollars. Depending on the contract language, contractors can even threaten to charge the consumer for the balance if the insurer balks, insurers say. Sometimes the contractors are tied to attorneys who take cases to court, introducing yet more costs that ultimately drive up everyone's rates, the insurance industry's argument goes.
For their part, attorneys and contractors say insurers are trying to low-ball consumers and unduly restrict their rights. For example, doctors routinely ask patients to sign over control of insurance benefits, they say. And they've been mostly winning in the legislature and the courts.
Certainly most consumers don't want their rates to go up because of unnecessary or inflated costs for somebody else's claim down the street. They just want claims covered in a
