![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/269_Florida_Legislation_Session_2026_MJO.jpg\" "\\"A")
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A view of the Florida Capitol before the start of the legislative session on Jan. 12, 2026, in Tallahassee.<\/p>\n
Photo by Matias J. Ocner<\/p>\n
mocner@miamiherald.com<\/p>\n
I first met Homer\u2019s Odyssey in middle school, wrestling with Odysseus and his 10-year voyage home. This summer, Christopher Nolan\u2019s film brought it back, with Matt Damon playing the scheming king of Ithaca.<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t expect to think about my day job. As a Florida-licensed building contractor, I\u2019ve inspected and repaired Florida homes for mold and water damage since 2003 and testified in court about what happens when an insurer denies a claim it owes. In Florida now, that is routine.<\/p>\n
But somewhere between the sirens and the sea, one image jumped 3,000 years and landed in my lap: the Trojan horse.<\/p>\n
You know the trick. Odysseus couldn\u2019t take Troy by force, so he took it by gift. The Greeks left a giant wooden horse outside the walls and sailed off. The Trojans wheeled the offering inside their own gates and celebrated. That night the soldiers hidden in its belly climbed out and opened the city. Troy wasn\u2019t beaten from outside. It was beaten from within, by a present its own people carried home.<\/p>\n
That is what has happened to Florida\u2019s homeowners. For four years, Tallahassee has wheeled a single gift through our gates and called it insurance reform. Gov. Ron DeSantis announced \u201cmajor insurance rate relief,\u201d saying premiums are falling because Florida \u201cenacted real reforms and withstood the pressure to reverse course.\u201d It\u2019s a beautiful horse. Look inside it.<\/p>\n
The first soldier is Senate Bill 2-A<\/a>, passed in 2022 and sold as a fix for a broken market. What it did was take away the one thing that made an insurer answer the phone: the attorney\u2019s-fee awards that let an ordinary family fight an unfair denial in court, or a lowball payout, or a repair that never legally restored the home. Strip that leverage and you haven\u2019t reformed the market. You\u2019ve disarmed one side of it. Carrier profits have climbed ever since. That wasn\u2019t a side effect. It was the purpose.<\/p>\n The second soldier came dressed as a friend. In 2023, lawmakers passed SB 7052<\/a>, the \u201cInsurer Accountability Act,\u201d with bipartisan votes and consumer-protection headlines. Its core promise: all carrier-paid restoration must strictly comply with state and federal law, and Florida\u2019s mold and water damage laws are the strictest in the country. But Tallahassee does not enforce that act. Carriers keep cutting corners. Homes sit unrestored, or improperly and illegally repaired. I wrote Florida\u2019s mold and water damage licensing exam for the National Association of Environmentally Responsible Mold Contractors. I know what failure to enforce the act means.<\/p>\n