Fla. Gov. Bush Reveals More Reimbursement Details

After Hurricane Frances ripped open the roof of Lisa and Glenn Perrone’s St. Lucie County home, an insurance adjuster told the Perrones they were on the hook for an $8,315 deductible.

And after Hurricane Jeanne dumped rain through the Perrones’ leaky roof three weeks later, an adjuster said they faced another deductible of $8,315, leaving the couple to wonder where they would find $16,630 for home repairs.

Glenn Perrone, a chemist for the South Florida Water Management District, also said he quit a part-time job at Home Depot to devote his spare time to repairing the family’s home.

So many Florida homeowners were hit with double deductibles this hurricane season that Gov. Jeb Bush wants to find a way to reimburse thousands of policyholders for millions of dollars in unexpected costs.

Bush and Tom Gallagher, Florida’s chief financial officer, visited Glenn Perrones’ home in unincorporated St. Lucie County before announcing a plan to help homeowners hit with more than one insurance deductible.

They plan to take the issue to the legislature in a special session in December. Bush and Gallagher, the state’s highest-ranking public officials, also hope to cut property taxes for homeowners whose homes were rendered uninhabitable by this year’s storms.

Details remain sketchy, but Bush said money for the rebates could come either from the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund, a state-run reinsurer, or from the state’s working capital.

The governor proposes two ways to use state money to help homeowners hit by hurricanes:
• Reimbursements for those who had to pay more than one deductible. Because hurricane deductibles apply to each storm, an estimated 20,000 policyholders paid as much as $300 million in second and subsequent deductibles.
• Tax breaks to property owners whose homes were destroyed by the hurricanes. The money would come from the state rather than from the local governments that receive the taxes.

“Neither insurers nor policyholders foresaw the implications of multiple hurricanes,” Bush said. “We must take action to make certain multiple deductibles do not preclude Florida homeowners from rebuilding quickly.”

Sam Miller, spokesman for the Florida Insurance Council, an industry group, said many insurers have waived double deductibles simply because it was too difficult to determine where one storm’s damage ended and the next storm’s toll began. And, he said, the high deductibles have helped hold down otherwise soaring premiums.

But Bush and Gallagher reiterated their plan to let policyholders lower their hurricane deductibles to 1 percent and to pay only one deductible per year rather than one per storm, even if the smaller deductible would lead to a rate hike.

“People ought to be able to get a 1 percent deductible if they want,” Bush said. “People ought to have a choice.”

Topics Florida Catastrophe Hurricane Homeowners