Hurricane Isaias claims keep climbing

18:55 News Story Total estimated insured losses for Hurricane Isaias had climbed to more than $735.5 million as of Friday, data posted by the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation show. The total number of claims filed with insurance companies following landfall of the Category 2 Hurricane in Destin grew to 68,071. OIR data indicate 58.2% of the claims have been closed. More than 81% of the total claims are for residential property coverage. Private passenger automobile damage accounted for 7,825 claims, making it the second largest claim category behind residential property. There were 163 claims for commercial auto losses. Of the 68,071 total claims that have been filed with insurance companies following Hurricane Iasias, 25,211 were closed with some form of payment. The data the OIR reports don’t include an average payment amount or details about payments made. Another 14,402 claims have been closed with no payment. Many of the closed, no-payment claims (6,835) involved instances in which the amount of insured damage claimed was less than the required deductible. Those account for the most claims closed with no payment. That’s followed by claims closed for administrative reasons, of which there were 5,374. This category is broad and captures duplicate claims or those opened in error, claims with incorrect dates of loss, claims in which the policyholder didn’t communicate with the insurance company, and claims withdrawn by the policyholder or filed only as inquiries. The OIR data show that three claims were closed with no payment due to suspicion of fraud. All three of those claims were submitted for private passenger automobile policies. Isaias-related claims are open and no payment has been made to the policyholder in 20,482 instances. The OIR website lists some of the “common reasons” claims can be closed without payment, including instances when the total damage reported in the claim does not exceed the policy deductible, and claims involving flood damage that “falls outside standard homeowner’s coverage.”