Consumer groups are pushing for rate cuts up to 50 percent for the biggest ” force-placed” insurer in Florida, arguing rates scrutinized at a Monday hearing punish struggling homeowners and are inflated by massive kickbacks to mortgage servicers.
American Security Insurance Co.’s proposed rate cut: Zero.
Lenders impose ” force-placed” insurance on homeowners who fall behind on payments or otherwise let property insurance lapse. The premiums are often double or triple the normal cost, and sometimes more.
The state’s Office of Insurance Regulation could rule in a matter of weeks in a case with big stakes: More than 142,000 Florida customers pay more than half a billion in annual premiums to the company, accounting for more than one out of every five dollars spent on this kind of insurance nationally.
” What you’re doing is incredibly important not only for consumers in Florida but across the nation,” Birny Birnbaum, executive director of the Center for Economic Justice, an advocacy group for consumers, told regulators Monday. ” You have to do a better job than you have to date.”
PALM BEACH POST
© 2026 WeidnerLaw. Design by OPM
I filed a complaint with the OCC regarding the fact that BAC (perhaps posing as me) cancelled my existing homeowner’s policy (at a rate of $1,200/yr) and forced placed a policy through QBE/Balboa totaling $12,587. To add insult to injury, I had raccoon(s) break in my attic and had a piss and crap party rendering the entire second floor uninhabitable and they denied the claim stating the policy states that (among other perils) “other animals” means raccoon(s) (and unicorns, Big Foot, etc.).
For those who do not know, a raccoon is actually of the bear species and can be easily argued and won with normal (non-ambiguous) policy language.
So, today I get a call from a rep from the office of the President at BAC confirming some details and they assured me they would take this issue to the next step. We shall see.