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April 5, 2021 in Editors' Featured
Florida Agents Join Consumer Advocate’s Fight Against Contractor Fraud
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Florida's property market is facing unprecedented challenges and losses blamed in part on unscrupulous contractors looking to exploit residential homeowners policies for financial gain. Stories of policyholders being promised a new roof or kitchen if they sign over their policy rights to a contractor, who in turn makes unreasonable demands of insurance companies and then sues them when those demands are not met, have become all too frequent. The state's Insurance Consumer Advocate Tasha Carter hears often from consumers who are unaware of the danger of working with these unlicensed contractors and decided to develop an educational initiative to help them avoid falling victim to these schemes. Launched in March, the Demolish Contractor Fraud consumer education program offers tips, services and resources for consumers on this issue.
The Florida Association of Insurance Agents (FAIA) has made educating policyholders on these schemes one of its priorities as well, and partnered with the ICA to get the word out about the program to consumers through its 21,000 agents in the state. In this interview, Carter and FAIA President and CEO Kyle Ulrich discuss their Demolish Contractor Fraud partnership, the prevalence of contractor fraud in Florida and its impact on the market, and what the industry can do to help stem the abuse.
