Florida Backs Mississippi in Flood Insurance Lawsuit

Flood insurance rate hikes have been big news recently, especially because of the amount of increase Florida homeowners are likely to see in their premiums.  Last month, Mississippi led the Gulf states with a lawsuit aimed at the federal rate hike.

The lawsuit claims that the Federal Emergency Management Administration failed to complete its due diligence under the Biggart-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act.  Specifically, that FEMA did not complete an affordability survey of the higher flood insurance premiums by the deadline of April 2013.  In fact, they have not completed one at all.  

On October 10th, Gov. Rick Scott, Attorney General Pam Bondi and CFO Jeff Atwater announced that they had only filled a brief in support of the Mississippi lawsuit, but did not rule out further action, hoping that they will be successful with their lawsuit or that congress and the president will take action immediately stop the rate increases.

The Florida legislature has also proposed other efforts to stabilize the rates such as being removed from the federal program and instituting its own state backed program similar to the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund.


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Source: News Service of Florida