Yesterday, a large sinkhole opened up in the driveway of a Pasco County homeowner.  I attached a picture of the sinkhole – which I’m sure was quite a surprise to the homeowner when she began to back out of her garage yesterday morning!  The question now arises – would this issue be covered under your

As part of an ongoing effort to give the shaft to Florida consumers, a bill was recently filed with the Florida Legislature which would greatly restrict – or even eliminate – the rights of property owners attempting to properly repair damage caused to their homes by sinkhole activity.  Senate Bill 416 (blandly titled, “Sinkhole Coverage”)

By now, you’ve most likely seen the stories about the large sinkhole that opened in Dunedin, Florida this week.  The Dupre family was awakened early Wednesday morning to what sounded like someone noisily attempting to break into their house.  Upon inspection, the homeowners were shocked to see that their entire back porch was sliding into

Citizens Property Insurance Corporation has been earning a reputation for systematically denying almost every insurance claim asserted by its policyholders.  Instead of honoring valid claims, Citizens spends millions of dollars each month “defending” claims – the same type of claims that other insurance companies would routinely pay without question.  Although those of us in the

Over the past year or so, we have been getting an increasing number of calls from property owners who continue to experience sinkhole damage to their property – even after their property has been repaired by the insurance company!  The factual circumstances are almost always the same – the insurance company mandates that the insured

For the past three years, my clients have had to battle with their insurance carrier, Tower Hill Select Insurance Company, to obtain coverage for the repair of damage caused to their home by sinkhole activity.  Time and time again, Tower Hill Select refused to provide any assistance to our clients and instead, threatened to pursue

Back in 2007, the insurance industry lobbied for the passage of an alternative dispute resolution mechanism for disputed sinkhole claims – a process which they cleverly entitled “Neutral Evaluation”.  The concept was that if there was a disagreement between a property owner and an insurance company as to any issue related to a sinkhole claim,

Back in the good old days of yore (which, at this point, was approximately 4 years ago), whenever an insurance company provided you with a policy of homeowner’s insurance, it automatically included coverage for any damage caused by sinkhole activity.  In 2007, as part of the insurance industry’s never ending attempt to limit coverage to

Over the past several years, many homeowners in Florida have had the misfortune of incurring damage to their property as the result of sinkhole activity. For many homeowners, the headaches and inconvenience caused by having to undergo the initial repair of this damage turned out to only be the beginning of the battle.

In almost