Florida Senate - 2016                        COMMITTEE AMENDMENT
       Bill No. CS for SB 596
       
       
       
       
       
       
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                              LEGISLATIVE ACTION                        
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       The Committee on Judiciary (Simmons) recommended the following:
       
    1         Senate Amendment (with title amendment)
    2  
    3         Delete everything after the enacting clause
    4  and insert:
    5         Section 1. Section 501.172, Florida Statutes, is created to
    6  read:
    7         501.172 Agreements with service providers entered into
    8  under urgent or emergency circumstances; assignment of benefits
    9  relating to property insurance; limitations.
   10         (1) For purposes of this section, the term:
   11         (a) “Consumer” means a person who has an interest in or who
   12  has a right to manage real property, including improvements upon
   13  such real property, regardless of whether for personal or
   14  business purposes, including an owner, a tenant, a licensee, or
   15  a property manager.
   16         (b) “Service provider” means a person who enters into an
   17  agreement with a consumer for the stabilization, repair,
   18  improvement, or remediation of real property.
   19         (2)If a consumer, including a consumer who is a
   20  policyowner of a property insurance policy, acts under urgent or
   21  emergency circumstances to protect property from damage and
   22  enters into an agreement with a service provider to stabilize,
   23  protect, repair, or improve such property, the service provider
   24  may only contract for or receive from the consumer at such time
   25  the right to payment for the amount of work necessary to
   26  stabilize, protect, and prevent additional damage from occurring
   27  to the property. Such right to payment may include a post-loss
   28  assignment of benefits under a property insurance policy or a
   29  grant of a lien upon the property as permitted under chapter
   30  713. A consumer’s agreement to provide greater rights to a
   31  service provider under such urgent or emergency circumstances,
   32  including alleged rights to do further repairs, remediation, or
   33  improvements or an assignment of rights, benefits, causes of
   34  action, or other contractual rights in violation of this
   35  subsection, is void.
   36         (3)In all circumstances, an agreement entered into by a
   37  consumer and a service provider after a loss or damage has
   38  occurred to the consumer’s property which contains a post-loss
   39  assignment of benefits to the service provider or some third
   40  person is not valid:
   41         (a) Unless the consumer or service provider provides a copy
   42  of the agreement to the consumer’s property insurer within 3
   43  business days after execution by both the service provider and
   44  consumer;
   45         (b) Unless, with the exception of payment for work already
   46  performed by a service provider to prevent additional damage
   47  from occurring to the property as provided in subsection (2),
   48  the agreement allows the consumer to rescind the agreement in
   49  writing and without penalty or obligation within 3 business days
   50  after the date the agreement is executed or within 3 business
   51  days after the insurer has been provided with the agreement,
   52  whichever is later. However, if the agreement is executed to
   53  perform work resulting from an event for which the Governor has
   54  declared a state of emergency and is within 1 year after such
   55  declaration, the consumer has 5 business days after the date the
   56  agreement is executed to rescind the agreement;
   57         (c) To the extent that the agreement imposes any fee for
   58  rescinding the agreement, a check processing fee, or a mortgage
   59  processing fee;
   60         (d) To the extent that the agreement prevents or inhibits
   61  an insurer from communicating with the consumer at any time;
   62         (e) To the extent that the agreement purports to transfer
   63  or create any authority to adjust, negotiate, or settle any
   64  portion of a claim to a person or an entity who is not
   65  authorized to adjust, negotiate, or settle a claim on behalf of
   66  the insured or claimant under part VI of chapter 626; or
   67         (f) Unless the agreement contains the following notice in
   68  14-point type to the consumer:
   69  
   70         WARNING: IF YOU HAVE PROPERTY INSURANCE, YOU MAY BE
   71         AGREEING TO GIVE UP CERTAIN RIGHTS YOU HAVE UNDER YOUR
   72         INSURANCE POLICY TO A THIRD PARTY. PLEASE READ AND
   73         UNDERSTAND THIS DOCUMENT BEFORE SIGNING IT. WITH THE
   74         EXCEPTION OF PAYMENT FOR WORK ALREADY PERFORMED BY A
   75         SERVICE PROVIDER TO PREVENT ADDITIONAL DAMAGE FROM
   76         OCCURRING TO THE PROPERTY RESULTING FROM EMERGENCY OR
   77         URGENT CIRCUMSTANCES, YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO RESCIND
   78         THIS AGREEMENT WITHOUT PENALTY WITHIN 3 BUSINESS DAYS
   79         AFTER THE DATE THIS AGREEMENT IS EXECUTED OR WITHIN 3
   80         BUSINESS DAYS AFTER YOUR PROPERTY INSURANCE COMPANY
   81         HAS RECEIVED A COPY OF THIS AGREEMENT, WHICHEVER IS
   82         LATER. IF WORK IS BEING PERFORMED AS A RESULT OF
   83         DAMAGES CAUSED BY AN EVENT FOR WHICH THE GOVERNOR HAS
   84         DECLARED A STATE OF EMERGENCY AND IS WITHIN 1 YEAR
   85         AFTER SUCH DECLARATION, THE 3 BUSINESS DAY PERIOD TO
   86         RESCIND THIS AGREEMENT IS EXTENDED TO 5 BUSINESS DAYS.
   87         THIS AGREEMENT DOES NOT CHANGE YOUR DUTIES UNDER YOUR
   88         PROPERTY INSURANCE POLICY, SUCH AS PROMPTLY NOTIFYING
   89         YOUR INSURANCE COMPANY OF A LOSS AND MITIGATING YOUR
   90         PROPERTY FROM FURTHER DAMAGE.
   91  
   92         (4) This section does not apply to a power of attorney
   93  granted to a management company, family member, guardian, or
   94  similarly situated person which complies with chapter 709 and
   95  which may include, as part of the authority granted, the
   96  authority to act in place of a principal as it relates to a
   97  property insurance claim.
   98         (5)A policyholder who assigns the right to receive the
   99  benefit of payment under the policy is not liable to the
  100  assignee for services and materials for which the insurer is
  101  liable, and the assignee may not collect or attempt to collect
  102  money from, maintain any action at law against, or claim a lien
  103  on the real property of a policyholder or report a policyholder
  104  to a credit agency for payment for which the insurer is liable
  105  under the policy. However, this subsection does not prohibit the
  106  assignee from collecting or attempting to collect money from,
  107  maintaining an action at law against, or claiming a lien on the
  108  real property of a policyholder or reporting a policyholder to a
  109  credit agency for payment of the amount of the insurance
  110  deductible or any amount attributable to services and materials
  111  ordered by the policyholder which are not covered under the
  112  insurance policy.
  113         Section 2. Section 627.422, Florida Statutes, is amended to
  114  read:
  115         627.422 Assignment of policies; restrictions on post-loss
  116  assignments of policy benefits.—
  117         (1) A policy may be assignable, or not assignable, as
  118  provided by the policy its terms. Subject to its terms relating
  119  to assignability, any life or health insurance policy under the
  120  terms of which the beneficiary may be changed upon the sole
  121  request of the policyowner may be assigned either by pledge or
  122  transfer of title, by an assignment executed by the policyowner
  123  alone and delivered to the insurer, regardless of whether or not
  124  the pledgee or assignee is the insurer. Any such assignment
  125  entitles shall entitle the insurer to deal with the assignee as
  126  the owner or pledgee of the policy in accordance with the terms
  127  of the assignment, until the insurer has received at its home
  128  office written notice of termination of the assignment or pledge
  129  or written notice by or on behalf of some other person claiming
  130  some interest in the policy in conflict with the assignment.
  131         (2) A property insurer may include policy provisions in
  132  property insurance policies which limit the post-loss
  133  assignability of its policy rights only in accordance with s.
  134  501.172. The commission may adopt rules to administer and
  135  enforce this subsection.
  136         Section 3. This act shall take effect July 1, 2016.
  137  
  138  ================= T I T L E  A M E N D M E N T ================
  139  And the title is amended as follows:
  140         Delete everything before the enacting clause
  141  and insert:
  142                        A bill to be entitled                      
  143         An act relating to consumer protection; creating s.
  144         501.172, F.S.; defining terms; specifying limitations
  145         to the assignment of specified rights by a consumer to
  146         a service provider for certain services provided under
  147         urgent or emergency circumstances to stabilize,
  148         protect, repair, or improve real property; providing
  149         that an agreement that provides certain greater rights
  150         to a service provider under such circumstances is
  151         void; providing that a specified agreement assigning
  152         certain rights is not valid unless specified
  153         conditions are met; providing applicability; providing
  154         that a policyholder who assigns a certain right is not
  155         liable to the assignee for specified services and
  156         materials; prohibiting an assignee from taking certain
  157         actions for payments for which the insurer is liable;
  158         providing applicability; amending s. 627.422, F.S.;
  159         providing that a property insurer may include
  160         provisions in property insurance policies limiting
  161         post-loss assignability of policy rights only in
  162         accordance with a specified provision; authorizing the
  163         Financial Services Commission to adopt rules;
  164         providing an effective date.