Florida Legislative Special Session 2022-A

The Florida Legislature convened for Special Session 2022-A December 12-16^th, 2022 to address property insurance and hurricane relief, to provide comprehensive relief for those in Florida impacted by Hurricanes Ian and Nicole, and to enact a toll credit program. The special session’s focus was on relief to Floridians.

Property Insurance:

SB 2A is a comprehensive bill intended to ensure policyholders have access to quality, affordable private market insurance. This legislation requires insurers to more promptly communicate, investigate and pay valid claims. This bill also strengthens the regulatory authority of the Office of Insurance Regulation over property insurers.

Specifically, the legislation:

• Establishes the Florida Optional Reinsurance Assistance (FORA) Program for the 2023 hurricane season, which:
• Creates an optional hurricane reinsurance program that insurers can purchase at “reasonable” rates. Rates vary by tier level purchased and will range from 50% to 65% rate on-line.
• Allows insurers that purchase FORA coverage or receive free Reinsurance to Assist Policyholders (RAP) coverage at each tier to have the option to purchase the next tier down.
• Maintains the Reinsurance to Assist Policyholders (RAP) program, thus allowing those insurers and their policyholders that could not participate during 2022-2023, to receive and benefit from RAP reinsurance in 2023-2024.
• Funds FORA coverage with $1 billion in general revenue funds and the premiums insurers pay for FORA coverage.
• Reduces the deadline for policyholders to report a claim under the policy from 2 years to 1 year for a new or reopened claim, and from 3 years to 18 months for a supplemental claim.
• Authorizes the Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) to subject any authorized insurer to a market conduct examination after a hurricane under certain conditions relating to property insurance claims.
• Amends the Homeowner Claim Bill of Rights to conform to the bill’s changes to the prompt pay laws.
• Prohibits the assignment, in whole or in part, of any post-loss insurance benefit under any residential property insurance policy or under any commercial property insurance policy issued on or after January 1, 2023.
• Amends the mandatory flood insurance notice by requiring it to be part of the declarations page and makes revisions to the content of notice to encourage purchase of flood insurance.
• Authorizes the OIR to extend the 30-day coverage period for policies of insolvent insurers by an additional 15 days if the OIR reasonably believes that market conditions are such that the policies cannot be placed with an authorized insurer within the 30-day period. 

Disaster Relief:

SB 4A provides for a number of disaster relief efforts in the wake of the 2022 hurricane season, in which 2 disastrous hurricanes struck the state of Florida, resulting in widespread destruction of homes, infrastructure, agricultural lands, beaches, and more.

The bill provides the following provisions to further supplement hurricane relief efforts across the state:

Funding:

• Appropriates $350 million from the General Revenue Fund to the Division of Emergency Management (DEM) to provide the full match requirement for FEMA Public Assistance grants to local governments affected by the two hurricanes.
• Appropriates $150 million from the General Revenue Fund to the Florida Housing Finance Corporation.
  • $60 million shall be provided to eligible counties and municipalities to assist persons with the repair or replacement of housing, relocation costs, housing reentry assistance, and insurance deductibles.
    • Based on population and FEMA damage assessment data from Hurricanes Ian and Nicole.
    • Up to $25 million of this amount may be used to provide assistance to homeowners to pay insurance deductibles
  • $90 million shall be used to fund the Rental Recovery Loan Program to promote development and rehabilitation of affordable housing in eligible counties and municipalities.
    • Based on population and FEMA damage assessment data from Hurricanes Ian and Nicole.
• Appropriates $250 million from the General Revenue Fund to the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) for:

Toll Relief:

SB 6A provides toll relief will go into effect upon signature of the Governor. This would give drivers who go through at least 35 toll collection points per month a 50% credit for a full year beginning Jan. 1, 2023. The toll credit program, which is backed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, would apply to all state toll facility entities that use a Florida-issued transponder or are linked with the Department of Transportation’s prepaid electronic transponder toll system, such as the SunPass system. The legislation also includes a $500 million appropriation that would be used to reimburse the Department of Transportation and toll agencies.

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