Timucua arts space faces insurance loss — again
Ask any music or theater lover in Orlando about hidden gems and you’ll likely hear about Timucua, an intimate performance space inside the home of Benoit Glazer, former music director for Cirque du Soleil.
Guests enter through the kitchen, sometimes bringing wine or food to share, before arriving in the three-story mini-concert hall. Funded through donations and nonprofit grants, Timucua has hosted everything from international jazz and classical acts, award-winning artists and theater productions both local and touring, often as free performances.
But last month, Glazer got bad news: The property that he and his wife, Elaine Corriveau, own is covered by one of the 50,000 insurance policies throughout the state about to be dropped.
“It’s like they have you by the throat,” he said. “You have to get
insurance, but they don’t have to give you insurance.”
This is the third time Glazer, 56, has been dropped by his carrier since he built the nearly 4,800-square-foot home at 2001 Hamilton Lane in Orlando in 2007. First, it was State Farm, then Allstate. This time it was Southern Fidelity Insurance Co., one of three companies given the go-ahead to cancel policies without the usual amount of notice.
Glazer, a co-founder and artistic director of the Timucua Arts Foundation, said he has never made a claim on his house and never missed a payment of his $3,500 annual premium.
“I don’t know why they weren’t happy to just sit back and collect my money,” he said.
Southern Fidelity could not be reached for comment.
The move was approved last month by Florida’s Office of Insurance Regulation, which called it necessary to combat a rising tide of litigation by homeowners and the soaring cost of reinsurance, which carriers purchase to cover their own catastrophic losses.
Glazer, who has been given until July 11 to find new insurance, says he is hampered by having flat roof areas, even though he had his builder add extra straps and screws beyond what his insurance companies ask for.
“I’m paying that upfront in order to present less risk,” he said, “and I get rewarded by 75% of the insurance market being blocked.”
As an event space, Timucua also carries a $1 million policy for performances. Chris Belt, executive director of the foundation, said Timucua’s event liability insurance has not been affected by the change and expects concerts and shows to continue without increased ticket prices.
“We’re not worried,” Belt said. “We’ve been through this before.”
Yet to insure his home, Glazer will likely have to turn to the surplus lines of insurance, which don’t have the same regulatory oversight as the regular insurance market and are usually much more expensive.
Senate Bill 76, passed by the legislature this year, was a measure designed to help stabilize the insurance markets, making it harder to pay attorney’s fees in claims litigation matters and putting new restrictions on contractors, nominally to prevent scams where roofers file claims on minimal damage for total roof replacement. Gov. Ron DeSantis has said he will sign the bill.
But consumer advocates say Tallahassee is working too hard to protect insurance companies from their clients and not doing enough to help homeowners.
“There’s nothing in [SB 76] that helps homeowners,” said Amy Boggs of the Florida Justice Association. “This legislation just makes it easier for Goliath to have a bigger club.”
Boggs, chair of the association’s property insurance section, is also an attorney who specializes in insurance claims, representing clients such as Joe Busby.
Busby, 75, had the roof ripped off his Jackson County home by Hurricane Michael in 2018.
“When the north eyewall hit my house, it took off everything above the brick for about 10 feet,” he said. “Rafters, everything.”
A farm management consultant, Busby said he had put a new roof on the house two years earlier for $27,000. When State Farm came and looked at his property, they offered him $13,000, even though he was insured for up to $160,000.
Busby has been battling ever since while he rents a place 50 miles from the home the Eustis native has lived in for 35 years. “You don’t even go into my home without a respirator,” he said, because of the mold that has built up.
In January, a Busby was awarded nearly $130,000 in damages by an insurance umpire, an official who helps settle disputes between property appraisers. However, Busby says State Farm has challenged that decision and is taking him to arbitration in August.
“They keep dragging it on,” he said.
Busby lamented what he called a lack of concern from the Legislature. He said he attended hearings held by both chambers on the new insurance bill. “The proponents [of the bill] kept talking about the insurawnce companies going broke,” he said.
The bill makes homeowners responsible for their attorney’s fees if they lose in court.
“If you overshoot [the value of a lawsuit], you run the risk of not being able to pay your attorney’s fees,” Boggs said.
As a result, Boggs says many attorneys will likely only take claims cases now from people who can afford to pay upfront.
Boggs challenges the insurance industry’s contention that it is facing a wave of fraudulent claims.
“[The insurance companies] have messaged this to say, ‘It’s not our fault,’ ” she says. She agrees that there are a lot of claims in Florida, but says, “The question we should be asked is why are they getting sued at such a high rate.”
Boggs contends the blame lies with insurance companies not paying on legitimate claims in a timely fashion. Even though Florida has a law that says claims must be paid or refuted within 90 days, Boggs says there is no mechanism to make them pay beyond charging them interest.
“Claims that are paid in full within 90 days don’t wind up in litigation,” she said. Boggs admits that there is also fraud in the system, but she doesn’t see this law as going after the perpetrators.
“In order to hurt the 5% of fraudulent claims, you hurt 95% of the legitimate claims,” she said. “[Lawmakers] didn’t address the real problem, which is slow pay on claims.”
Glazer might have another option for new insurance from Citizens, Florida’s state-run carrier often referred to as the insurance of last resort. However, SB 76 makes changes to it as well.
New customers must prove that they cannot find a comparable policy within 20% of the cost of a Citizens policy, raised from 15%. The new law would also increase the amount Citizens is allowed to increase rates per year from 10% to 15% over the next five years.
Glazer said he thinks a change in leadership in the state capital might help consumers.
“I get the feeling the customer would be taken more into account if these companies didn’t have that much pull in Tallahassee,” he said.
An immigrant from Canada, Glazer and his wife became citizens this year. He is looking forward to using his power at the ballot box.
“It’s not much, but it’s what we can do,” he said.