Category Archives: Market Trends

Hundreds of plaintiffs filed suit Tuesday in Pasco County against Citizens Property Insurance and Xactware Solutions Inc., for the way they calculate replacement values.  Xactware is a Utah-based company also known as 360Value that sells computer programs to insurance companies to determine property replacement costs.

Joe Freitas from New Port Richey is the individual named as plaintiff on behalf of the others in the class action. The plaintiffs are represented by attorneys Mark Beausoleil of Fort Lauderdale and Shane McClelland, who works for a Houston law firm.

The suit said Freitas purchased his home in September for $109,000, slightly below a $117,000 appraisal from his mortgage company, which required property casualty coverage. The premium with Citizens was $917. However, 30 days after closing, Freitas was told by his insurance agent that Citizens would not insure his home for less than $236,700, doubling the premium to $1,846 annually.

“It changed the way we were going to live our lives,” Freitas, 44, said at a news conference in front of the Old Capitol.

“Our motivation in establishing an accurate replacement cost valuation is to protect our policyholders and make sure they can restore their home after a catastrophic loss,” Citizens’ spokeswoman Christine Ashburn said Tuesday. “Any assertion to the contrary is simply wrong.”

Florida requires insurers to receive approval on rate requests from the Office of Insurance Regulation.  Instead of raising rates, Citizens is accused of hiking replacement values to accomplish the same thing – higher premiums to consumers.

Created by the Legislature in 2002, Citizens was designed to provide insurance to homeowners in high-risk areas and those who cannot find coverage in the private market. It was largely an offshoot of an underwriting association formed by the state in the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew in August 1992. Instead of being the insurer of last resort as originally intended, Citizens has become the largest insurer of homes and businesses in Florida with nearly 1.5 million policy owners. If the company were to fail, virtually anyone in Florida with insurance would be assessed to make up the losses.

Sam Miller, vice president of the Florida Insurance Council, an industry group, said a major judgment against Citizens resulting from Tuesday’s suit would likely result in a statewide assessment on all homeowners, motorists and business owners.

Jan. 31, 2012 – The U.S. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced new regulations to ensure that HUD’s core housing programs are open to all eligible persons, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.

The new regulations, to be published as final in the Federal Register next week, will go into effect 30 days after publication. The final rule, published as “Equal Access to Housing in HUD Programs – Regardless of Sexual Orientation or Gender Identity,” makes the following provisions:

• Requires owners and operators of HUD-assisted housing, or housing whose financing is insured by HUD, to make housing available without regard to the sexual orientation or gender identity of an applicant for a dwelling, whether renter- or owner-occupied. HUD will institute this policy in its rental assistance and homeownership programs, which include the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) mortgage insurance programs, community development programs, and public and assisted housing programs.

• Prohibits lenders from using sexual orientation or gender identity as a basis to determine a borrower’s eligibility for FHA-insured mortgage financing.

• Clarifies that all otherwise eligible families, regardless of marital status, sexual orientation or gender identity, will have the opportunity to participate in HUD programs. In the majority of HUD’s rental and homeownership programs the term “family” already has a broad scope, and includes a single person and families with or without children. HUD’s rule clarifies that otherwise eligible families may not be excluded because one or more members of the family may be an LGBT individual, have an LGBT relationship, or be perceived to be so.

• Prohibits owners and operators of HUD-assisted housing or housing insured by HUD from asking about an applicant’s sexual orientation and gender identity. In response to comments, however, HUD says this provision doesn’t prohibit voluntary and anonymous reporting of sexual orientation or gender identity pursuant to state, local or federal data requirements.

HUD published the final rule (PDF format) on its website.