WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (CN) - On the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Irma's landfall in the Sunshine State, homeowners' claims of being shafted by their property insurers are still pouring into Florida courts, where state-run insurance company Citizens has been sued more than 2,000 times in the last three months.
Hurricane Irma generated an estimated $10 billion in insured damage and was blamed for at least 80 fatalities in the state.
It hit the Caribbean islands as one of the strongest-ever-recorded Atlantic hurricanes, before arriving in Florida as a Category 4 storm. Most Florida households lost power, and curfews kept residents huddled by candelight in communities from the Keys to Jacksonville.
Though the downed trees have been cleared, and flood waters long-since receded, the insurance litigation fallout from Irma shows no signs of subsiding. The storm has contributed to a 58 percent year-over-year increase in lawsuits against the state's Citizens Property Insurance Corp., often an insurer of last resort for vulnerable coastal areas. Hundreds of lawsuits over unpaid Irma claims were filed against insurers in South Florida courts over the last month alone.
Behind the numbers are frustrated homeowners with ravaged property, attorney Valorie Chavin said in an email. For many clients whose claims were either underpaid or outright denied, Chavin said it's been nothing short of a nightmare.
"We have clients living with mold, kids getting sick, houses being inundated with water, tarps not work[ing], families displaced. And the constant emails and calls for updates and help are heartbreaking," she said.
After their home's roof was ripped off in the storm, a family-of-three represented by Chavin had to move into a dilapidated rental property because they were not getting timely reimbursement from their insurer, the attorney said. Adding insult to injury, she said, the insurer falsely accused them of submitting a fraudulent claim.
"The carrier’s expert witness was forced to concede that his opinion -- that it was 'impossible' for Hurricane Irma to rip this roof off -- was wrong when faced with video footage taken from the neighbors across the street," Chavin said.
Citizens for its part denies that unfair claims-handling is the root of the record influx of lawsuits. A spokeswoman for the insurer said in an email that countless homeowners rush to file litigation once they retain attorneys.
"With respect to the insured having dialogue with us prior to suit, the trend has been that not much of this has happened," Citizens spokeswoman Christine Turner Ashburn said. "Those claims that are reported with representation typically accept the [claim] settlement and then file suit without additional discussions. For those insureds not represented, they are certainly contacting our Resolution Unit and submitting supplements along the way."
In roughly half of the new lawsuits served on Citizens through mid-summer 2018, the plaintiff policyholder did not dispute Citizens' claim adjustment/payment prior to filing suit, according to Citizens' data.
"In other words, the insured did not communicate any dissatisfaction with the claims decision, nor did the insured provide any additional information concerning the loss for Citizens to investigate or consider," Turner Ashburn said.
