5 years after Wilma, South Florida struggles with insurance problems

This is an anniversary no one is celebrating.

Five years after Hurricane Wilma whipped through South Florida, ripping holes in roofs and insurance companies, the insurance industry is still picking up the pieces and dealing with new problems unrelated to the storm, and property owners remain frustrated by a lack of choices and ever-increasing rates.

Claims for Wilma continue to trickle in this year, for damage homeowners say they have just discovered from the storm.

Already, Wilma is closing in on the tab for Hurricane Andrew, a far more powerful storm. When it last reviewed the cost of claims from Hurricane Wilma, a Category 2, in 2007, the Insurance Services Office, an industry trade group, estimated the insured losses in Florida were $10.3 billion from more than a million claims.

Several insurance companies have collapsed and those left standing are raising rates. And because an insurance bill passed by the legislature in the spring was vetoed by the governor, now insurers can raise rates first and then ask regulators for approval.

The state's largest private insurer tried to abandon Florida and remains here only in exchange for dropping 125,000 policyholders and increasing premium prices.

As companies bail or fail, state-run insurer Citizens Property Insurance _ a predecessor of which was formed after Andrew with the intent of eventually disappearing _ is growing.

Sinkholes, labeled by some as a scourge nearly as big as mold, are being blamed as the source of more claims than ever, including well outside the state's "sinkhole alley" in Central Florida.

One of the rallying cries of the industry and a concern of regulators is that public adjusters _ who work for consumers who may be having trouble getting help from their insurers _ are driving up costs and filing questionable claims.

"We should be in a heck of a lot stronger position with five years without a hurricane," said Sam Miller, vice president of the Florida Insurance Council. "Every company is petitioning the Office of Insurance Regulation for rate increases and getting those approved. They are not able to build surplus and make a profit in years without a hurricane. That's bad."

When Gov. Charlie Crist vetoed a carefully crafted property insurance bill in June, to some it felt like the sharp winds of a hurricane shredding the state all over again.

To some, the bill would have been the largest step forward in a while toward stabilizing a shaky insurance market that hasn't found solid ground _ although the state hasn't been hit by a single major storm since Wilma.

"That bill was a tremendous beginning to try and straighten things out," Miller said. Next session, "that will be the starting point."

The bill would have limited the amount of time policyholders could file claims after a storm to three years. Neighboring states limit claims to two years, Miller said. Florida allows claims, storm or otherwise, to be made for up to five years after an incident.

"Does it really make sense that thousands of homeowners are unable to discover damage from a hurricane until three, four and five years after landfall?"

Crist vetoed the bill because it included a provision for companies to increase rates based on increases in the cost of reinsurance and inflation. The increases would have been subject to regulators' approval, but Crist said he could not condone any action that could raise premiums.

Among other attempts to curb insurance company expenses, the bill would have further regulated public adjusters, adjusted the way discounts on measures homeowners take to strengthen their homes are handled and withheld payment for claims until homeowners had a signed contract for repairs.

"There's bad in every industry," said Michael McManigal of Florida Loss Public Adjusters, based in Pembroke Pines. "I can also say if the insurance companies were to pay what they should pay there wouldn't be any need for us. They want to cut corners."