HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — After years of paying sky-high insurance premiums, this past hurricane season put your insurance company to the test. However, for many homeowners in the Tampa Bay area, they feel insurance is not coming through for them.
ABC Action News Anchor Nadeen Yanes continues her investigation into why so many hurricane claims are being "Closed without Payment" or simply denied.
She's previously reported that more than half of those denials in Hurricanes Debbyand Helene were because those storms were flood events. Flood damage is not covered by property insurance.
However, she's digging deeper into the dataafter she discovered nearly half of the claims in Hurricane Milton were denied because those claims fell below high deductibles.
'THEY'RE JUST MAKING STRAIGHT PROFIT'
Chad Zalva is a single dad who lives in a modest 2-bedroom home in Riverview. It's where he decided to start over after a divorce, purposely choosing the lowest insurance premium he could find.
"I did go for the lower amount," Zalva said.
Not realizing that meant his deductible at $7200 dollars would be so high — it would be out of reach when he went to put in a claim after Hurricane Milton.
"Unfortunately, my deductible is outrageous," he said. "I was like this is insanity."
His damage was not detrimental; some soffit fell down, a screen door needed to be replaced, and some trees brought down parts of the fence in his backyard. Not detrimental, but not enough to get a check from his insurance company. His damage was quoted by his insurance company at around $2500 dollars. A contractor told him it would cost about $4500 dollars to repair.
"Do you have that kind of money laying around," Nadeen asked.
"No, not at all," Zalva laughed. "They're just making straight profit. It's definitely frustrating and they need to do something about it."
Zalva has Tower Hill Insurance. ABC Action News emailed their media relations team for any response and are still waiting to hear back.
'YOU'RE PAYING FOR THIS INSURANCE FOR WHAT PURPOSE?'
On the flip side, Tampa single mom Liz Ann purposely increased her coverage with Citizens Property Insurance and paid a higher premium because she wanted to make sure she was protected in the event of a storm.
"I actually amped my coverage for my fence and outdoor building here, just in case there was a hurricane," she said.
She also wanted to keep her deductible low.
"I specifically didn't want one that high because God Forbid," she said. "I did everything that I possible could do and did everything the right way."
Part of that included not only increasing her coverage but she trimmed down and took out any large tree that could fall during a storm. Still, during Hurricane Milton her neighbor's trees came crashing down, bringing down a large portion of her fence and one tree crashing down on her shed outside.
"Now, they're denying my claim, saying it's under deductible, I don't know what I'm going to do," she said. "They're saying it's under like, 3,000 whatever mine is, I'd have to look it up exactly. They're not going to cover it."
Her deductible was just over $3700 dollars.
"Our evaluation shows the cost to repair or replace the front porch screen, roof repairs to shed will not exceed policyholders $3,774.00 calendar year Hurricane deductible. Therefore, no payment will be made regarding this claim," her denial letter read.
"So it's like you're paying for this insurance for what purpose?"
'CLOSED WITHOUT PAYMENT'
According to Claims Catastrophe Data posted online on the Office of Insurance Regulation's website, in Hurricane Milton already 77% of all claims are closed. Of those claims closed, 96,390 claims or 49% were closed without payment. 41% of those claims closed without payment, were closed because damage was BELOW the deductible.
Broken down even further, Citizens Property Insurance CEO Tim Cerio presented their claims datato lawmakers at a Senate Committee on Banking and Insurance back in January.
"We have no financial incentive to not pay claims," Cerio told lawmakers. "Zero."
Combining all three hurricanes: Debby, Helene and Milton, Citizens had a total of 76,725 claims, with 68,097 or 88% already closed. Of those closed, 34,645 were closed without payment, or 49%. Of those closed without payment, 35% were closed because, again, the hurricane deductible was too high.
CITIZENS PROPERTY INSURANCE RESPONSE
"What would you say to Citizens," Nadeen asked Liz.
"That they need to be realistic and pay the claims," she said. "Like no one is out here with a hole in the roof with a tree still in it trying to scam you."
Citizens Property Insurance spokesperson Michael Peltier explains hurricane deductibles are beyond any insurance company's scope. Instead, he said the way they are set up is mandated through the Florida legislature.
"Typically hurricane deductibles run 2%, 5% or even 10% of what the homes coverage value would be to replace it," Peltier said.
He confirmed it means on a $300,000 dollar home with a 10% deductible, that homeowner could have to put up $30,000 dollars upfront before they see a dime from their insurer.
"We urge our policyholders to speak to their insurance agent to walk them through their own situation," Peltier added. "Some people are in the financial position where a 10% hurricane deductible makes sense for them. They get lower monthly premiums, but they will have to come up with more cash up front should a big storm hit."
STATE LAW MANDATES HIGH HURRICANE DEDUCTIBLES
We took it a step further to the State's Insurance Commissioner, Mike Yaworsky, asking why deductibles are set up this way and, in turn, are so high for homeowners.
"The statute actually mandates that there be a hurricane deductible of some kind, 2%, 5%, 10% on every single policy. And so that's that's baked through the entire system," Yaworsky said.
We asked if that's something the state could change to provide relief for homeowners after a storm.
"The legislature could certainly make moves to address that. But one of the things that that's doing is it's balancing out the cost of the catastrophic loss," Yaworsky said. "So if we want more flexibility for the consumer, it would just be important that they understand that if they pay a lower deductible, they're likely going to be paying a higher premium. And so it's a balancing test."
"I'm not a drag on the system."
A woman said she hasn't been able to shower or get out of bed ever since a car accident left her paralyzed from the chest down, and Medicaid denied claims for the medical gear she needs