Following the devastation of Hurricane Irma, the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation has entered an emergency order regarding insurance procedures for residential property policies to assist policyholders and streamline the claims process. The insurance commissioner’s order provides standardized requirements for claims reporting, grace periods for payment of premiums and performance of other duties by policyholders, and temporary postponement of cancellations and non-renewals. These include:
- Withdrawing all notices of cancellation issued or mailed on or after August 25, 2017 through September 3, 2017, and requiring the insurance company to reissue after October 15, 2017, unless by written request of the policyholder
- Prohibiting insurers from cancelling any insurance policies until a property is restored to the extent it is insurable by another insurer
- Providing extensions of time to pay premium finance accounts
- Waiving requirement that policyholder provide written authorization for payment of claims and permits payment by debit card or other electronic transfer
If you are planning on submitting an insurance claim for damage caused by Hurricane Irma, please keep these provisions in mind. A copy of the full Emergency Order can be found here.
For more information, please visit our Hurricane Insurance Recovery and Advisory center.