Another hurricane season forecast downgrade
Florida insurance regulators make a significant change in how they plan to handle home mitigation inspections for discounts, there will also be new industry input on just how to measure claims-handling complaints, plus yet another downgrade to this hurricane season’s forecast. It’s all in this week’s Property Insurance News.
OIR Wind Mitigation Program: The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) has listened to industry input over the past few months and is now planning on making home inspectors – not insurance companies – responsible for submitting wind mitigation inspection Form OIR-B1-1802 reports to OIR in the future. That form and the associated quarterly collection of all those inspection forms using a revamped Form OIR-B1-600 are part of OIR’s next steps in implementing the legislatively-mandated reevaluation of wind mitigation discount credits on Florida property insurance policies.
As we reported, OIR received a lot of feedback to the plan at its February workshop from insurance companies and associations, who commented on the “significant undertaking” that Form B1-600 represents, predicting an “extraordinary cost” on carriers, and a “big ask” of the industry. In the months since, OIR has received additional feedback and is now planning to change the forms and Rule 69O 170.0155 that governs them. LMA understands that the updated Rule and Forms language could come as early as next month. We applaud OIR for finding this sensible solution for all parties by gathering the date from the source by which it emanates!
Photo by danielfela/Shutterstock
Claims-handling Complaints Workshop: After indicating it wasn’t contemplating one, OIR has announced it will indeed hold a workshop hearing this Thursday (July 23) at 9am to hear from the industry on Rule 69O-138.003, which was amended to define what “a disproportionate number of claims-handing complaints” is under state law, and will be used for market conduct exam purposes. As we reported in our mid-June newsletter, that definition is based on the Complaint Index, which is the proportion of those complaints to the carrier’s number of open claims, using the latest Catastrophe Reporting Form. Excluded from the count are requests for mediation and complaints from anyone other than the insured or beneficiary. The rule had already received approval by the Financial Services Commission in early June but OIR is reexamining it through this upcoming workshop at the request of the insurance industry.
Hurricane Season Downgrade: Researchers at Colorado State University have downgraded this year’s hurricane season forecast again from “somewhat below-normal” to “a well-below normal season.” AccuWeather, which had already called for a below normal season has also slightly reduced the range of named storms it predicts this season from 11 to 16 named storms, to now 8 to 14 named storms. AccuWeather remains unchanged in its prediction of 4 to 7 hurricanes, with 2 to 4 being major (Cat 3+) hurricanes. Both forecasting groups credit strong El Niño conditions and its resulting strong vertical wind shear for the below normal numbers. “As with all hurricane seasons, coastal residents are reminded that it only takes one hurricane making landfall to make an active season,” according to the Colorado State report. “Thorough preparations should be made every season, regardless of predicted activity.” LMA also recommends readers review this timely reminder that Not every Floridian faces the same hurricane threat by meteorologist Leslie Hudson.
LMA Newsletter of 7-20-26
