Florida’s Office of Insurance Regulation fined Heritage Property & Casualty $1 million after examining how the company handled Hurricane Ian claims. It was one of the largest fines in state insurance history, and the findings read like a checklist of what goes wrong for policyholders after a major storm.
What Regulators Found
Examiners sampled 324 of the more than 5,500 Ian claims Heritage handled. In the sample they found:
- In about 30 percent of claims, the company did not acknowledge claim communications within 14 days, as Florida law requires
- In about 22 percent, it did not pay or deny the claim within 90 days, as Florida law requires
- In dozens of cases, adjusters were not properly appointed, and in 139 instances adjusters did not give policyholders their license information
- In 59 of 216 claims closed with payment, the interest owed was calculated wrong
Use the Same Checklist on Your Claim
- Write down the date you reported your claim and every date the insurer responds
- Get the name and license number of every adjuster who touches your home
- Save every letter and email. Deadlines in Florida law run from dates, and dates win arguments
- If 90 days pass without payment or a denial, that is a violation, not a normal wait
Source: Insurance Journal, May 13, 2024.
Policyholder Advocacy Group tracks these deadlines for its clients on every claim. Read our Hurricane Isaias claim guide. Free claim review: call 800.511.2240.