Insurance ‘nightmare’ unfolds for Florida homeowners after back-to-back hurricanes | NBC News
Bridgette Bello thought she had taken every precaution to protect her home in Florida from hurricanes, purchasing multiple insurance policies to cover her in the event of disaster. However, after enduring two back-to-back hurricanes—Helene and Milton—she finds herself in an insurance nightmare. With delays and denials from her insurance company, Bello’s situation is all too familiar for many Florida residents trying to recover from the devastation of the storms. Despite having the right policies in place, victims face an uphill battle due to how insurance companies are handling the claims process, categorizing the two hurricanes as separate events, and making it even harder to prove what damage came from each storm.
Insurance companies are using tricky policy loopholes to their advantage, often denying claims if homeowners didn’t document the damage correctly or lacked the right kind of insurance, like flood coverage. Even for those with insurance, recovery isn’t guaranteed. Many homeowners didn’t have separate flood insurance, which is typically excluded from standard policies. Experts say that without flood coverage, claims are likely to be rejected, and many residents are walking away from their homes, unable to afford rebuilding.
To make matters worse, Florida’s recent insurance reforms, aimed at keeping companies in the state, have left victims with fewer legal options to challenge denied claims. The reforms may have stabilized the insurance market, but they’ve also emboldened companies to deny claims more easily. This is leading to a crisis for homeowners who can’t rely on their insurance to recover from the hurricanes. Even FEMA, offering some financial relief, has limitations, leaving many residents caught in a bind.
For people like Bello, the reality is harsh: even if they receive some payout from their insurance, the expenses of rebuilding and complying with stricter floodplain management rules could leave them deep in financial trouble. With legal actions now harder to pursue, the pressure is on to find long-term solutions for how Florida handles insurance in the face of repeated hurricanes…….
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How do you think the evolving insurance landscape in hurricane-prone areas could impact not just homeowners but also broader economic factors like real estate markets, investors in insurance companies, and consumer confidence in rebuilding communities?
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