FLORIDA HOUSE PASSES HEAVILY AMENDED SENATE BILL 1770

Florida Senate Bill 1770, which covers a number of insurance matters but is mainly related to pricing by Florida's insurer of last resort Citizens, has passed through the state House of Representatives, but only after the House replaced the many of the terms of SB 1770 with the more narrow approach text of the previously passed HB 909. The change means that policyholders with Florida Citizens will not be moved more quickly towards actuarially sound rates. SB 1770 will now return to the Senate for final approval before being submitted to Governor Rick Scott for signing. The House proposal has 19 changes that are in the Senate bill, but excludes a further 36. The most notable exclusions are lifting of Citizens' exemption from bad faith litigation, a requirement that all non-residential policies be actuarially sound, a requirement that members of the Citizens board of governors be confirmed by the Senate, and changing Citizens' president from a board of governors' appointment into an executive director position selected by the governor and chief financial officer. However, the proposal to create the Florida Catastrophe Risk Capital Access Facility was not amended/excluded. That new facility, if approved, would enable smaller insurers to access the capital markets. Although the Senate is keen for some kind of bill to get onto the statute books, the changes made by the House are sufficiently major – particularly on the matter of the rates that can be charged by Citizens – to lead to concerns that the Senate will not accept the amended bill as it currently stands.