Gov. Ron DeSantis signed two bills on Fort Myers Beach today, one providing disaster relief, the other intended to address the state's property insurance crisis. The first was Senate Bill 4-A which provides $750 million for additional disaster relief to Floridians following Hurricanes Ian and Nicole. The second was SB 2-A, which proponents describe as "the most significant property insurance reform bill in recent history which helps to stabilize our property insurance market, increase competition, and strengthen consumer protections." Photo provided by the Governor's Office

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed two bills on Fort Myers Beach today, one providing disaster relief, the other intended to address the state’s property insurance crisis.

The first was Senate Bill 4-A which provides $750 million for additional disaster relief to Floridians following Hurricanes Ian and Nicole. The second was SB 2-A, which proponents describe as “the most significant property insurance reform bill in recent history which helps to stabilize our property insurance market, increase competition, and strengthen consumer protections.”

“We have taken an all-hands-on-deck approach to cut through bureaucracy to help our communities recover from Hurricanes Ian and Nicole,” DeSantis said. “I want to thank the Legislature for bringing additional disaster relief to communities across the state as we continue our historic recovery.

“The issues in Florida’s property insurance market did not occur overnight, and they will not be solved overnight. The historic reforms signed today create an environment which realigns Florida to best practices across the nation, adding much-needed stability to Florida’s market, promoting competition, and increasing consumer choice. I am thankful the Legislature answered the call for meaningful reform.”

SB 4-A, Disaster Relief, provides property tax relief for homes rendered uninhabitable due to the storm. Additionally, the bill provides $750 million for the communities impacted by Hurricanes Ian and Nicole, including:

• $350 million to support the entire portion of local government match for FEMA Public Assistance, freeing up local funds to undertake additional hurricane recovery and mitigation projects.

This matching money may provide up to $7 billion in reconstruction and recovery projects undertaken by local governments depending on the applicable federal cost share.

• $150 million to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to support local beach renourishment projects and a new Hurricane Restoration Reimbursement Grant Program to assist homeowners with coastal hardening and fortification to protect their property against the severe coastal erosion from both Hurricanes Ian and Nicole.

The bill also authorizes DEP to waive local match requirements for beaches in these impacted areas.

•$100 million to DEP to repair and reconstruct community stormwater and wastewater infrastructure that was damaged by Hurricanes Ian or Nicole.

•$150 million to continue efforts to support homeowners and renters impacted by the storms through the Hurricane Housing Program and Rental Recovery Loan Program.

According to the Governor’s Office, the Property Insurance legislation is intended to strengthen Florida’s property insurance market by “eliminating one-way attorney fees for property insurance claims, which will disincentivize frivolous lawsuits, and realigning Florida’s market to best practices that will promote more market competition in the private insurance industry.”

“This bill reins in the incentive to litigate,” DeSantis said. He cited one example of a $50,000 claim which resulted in $1 million in attorney fees, fees the governor said get passed on to policy holders in the way of higher premiums.

“Now we’re more in line with what the rest of the county is doing,” he added.

According to the Governor’s Office, SB 2-A also will:

• Reduce the burden of excessive and predatory litigation will help bring down costs for homeowners.

• Enhance the Office of Insurance Regulation’s ability to complete market conduct examinations of property insurers following a hurricane to hold insurance companies accountable and prevent abuse of the property appraisal process.

• Reduce timelines for insurers to get payments out the door and back into the hands of policyholders as they rebuild their lives.

• Build on reforms passed earlier this year by committing additional funding to provide temporary reinsurance support to help stabilize the state’s market.

The legislation passed this week during the Special Session called by DeSantis “builds on progress made during the Special Session held earlier this year to address concerns with the property insurance market.”

After that earlier Special Session, DeSantis signed SB 2-D “which enacted pro-consumer measures to help alleviate rising insurance costs, increased insurance claim transparency, and cracked down on frivolous lawsuits which drive up costs for all Floridians,” the Governor’s Office said in a release. “This built upon previous actions taken by the Governor on property insurance including signing House Bill 7065 in 2019 to curtail Assignment of Benefit abuse and SB 76 in 2021 which restructured litigation rules for insurance claims to reduce the burden of excessive litigation.”