PENSACOLA, Fla. -- Senate Bill 2A became law Sunday.
It focuses on multiple areas of property insurance reform.
The owner of Gulf Coast Insurance, Mary Jordan, says property owners may not see the effect of this new legislation until over a year from now.
These changes are designed to make having a property insurance company in Florida more affordable.
In turn, lawmakers are hoping that insurers will stop leaving the state and rates will go down for customers.
One of the changes is modifying the deadline to make a claim to one year.
This will prevent people from filing claims for storm damage years after a hurricane.
The law also eliminates assignment of benefits.
“With the removal of the assignment of benefits, that is huge in that you can no longer sign away your policy rights to a contractor. They always stay with you as a consumer,” said Jordan.
This prevents people who are called “bad actors” from taking over a property owners’ policy and making unnecessary claims which leads to insurers paying for lawsuits that should have never been filed in the first place.
Litigation costs are one of the main reasons why insurance companies in Florida go bankrupt.
When WEAR News spoke with Jordan about property insurance last month as we were heading into the special legislative session, she said 80 percent of property insurance lawsuits nationwide are filed in Florida.