Over a dozen Florida insurance companies are being called out for refusing to pay over half of the home insurance claims submitted to them by their customers.
It doesn't stop there: the insurance industry report also found nine other companies that paid out on just 40% to 50% of their claims.
The report is alarming some insurance policyholders. Weiss Financial Ratings is an independent and unbiased firm that rates stocks and financial institutions, including insurance companies.
Founder Martin Weiss said the information he received from the company's own reporting should be alarming to Florida homeowners. However, some local insurance agents are saying the numbers may not be as bad as the report suggests.
“This is far worse than it was back in 2023,” Weiss said.
Weiss put out this list of 14 home insurance companies that closed more than 50% of their claims and didn't pay homeowners a penny to those policyholders.
“We have a good reason to believe that some insurance companies, maybe many insurance companies, are doing this as a deliberate tactic to avoid paying claims,” Weiss said.
However, he could not provide any proof of his claim.
Local insurance agent Doug Nellans, who owns The Insurancenter in Fort Myers, suggested things may not be as bad as they sound.
“Two of the more common reasons we see here in our agency is that the cause of damage in the insurance companies view is something that is excluded from the policy,” Nellans said.
He also said claims can be denied for flood damage, which is not covered by most homeowner’s insurance.
“There almost certainly has to be a legitimate reason for those denials,” Nellans said.
Nellans said for anyone who sees their company on the list not to overreact.
“I wouldn't necessarily be concerned. I looked at the entire list and nearly every player in the state of Florida is on the Weiss list that had a 30% denial rate or more,” Nellans said.
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