Florida legislation to limit
sinkhole claims to 25%
By Erica Pitzi, 10connects.com
Published: March 7, 2010

Plant City, FL - On Azalea Blossom Drive, homeowners feel that at any moment, "We could fall into a hole. That's very scary," said Laura Clemons.

That scary situation has happened to quite a few folks in Clemons' neighborhood.

"Just a couple of weeks ago, a hundred yards away from me, they [neighbors] have a 30 by 90 feet sinkhole right in the middle of their home," said Clemons.

Sinkhole liability lawyer Morgan Barfield of the Barfield Law Group has represented many of Clemons' neighbors.

His goal is to get sinkhole victims the money they deserve from insurance companies. Barfield says, it is tough enough as it is, but now a new law proposed in the legislature (HB 1447) could make matters worse.

"Now, they're trying to limit that coverage by another 75% and none of the people are going to be able to afford it," said Barfield.

According to the language in the legislation, the goal of the bill is to limit "insurance fraud" by having a "sinkhole coverage limit" of up to 25%. Plus, with some insurance carriers dropping sinkhole coverage altogether, this bill would guarantee coverage, despite the significant limit.

Barfield still says, "You are at the mercy of your insurance company if this bill goes through and there's nothing you can do about it unless you have tens of thousands of dollars out of your pocket."

Clemons agrees. If a sinkhole opened up under her home right now, her coverage would pay out almost 100%. Under the new legislation, she would only get 25%.

"We might as well, literally, get up and pack," said Clemons.

In fact, Barfield believes there will be a spike in foreclosures because that is exactly what people will do because they can't afford to fix their damaged homes.

With holes all around her home, Clemons feels lucky her home hasn't sunk into the ground yet. Then again, she says, being a future sinkhole victim, under this legislation, is way worse.

"This is unfair. We are hard-working people who don't need any more of a burden on us," said Clemons.

Clemons had not heard about the new legisation until we knocked on her door. She says she's going to round up her neighbors and start a petition against the legislation.

Grouting Committee News
By Dan Barton, Rimkus Consulting Group

FAS³ formed a Grouting Committee to establish guidelines on the design and use of grout injection when performing subsurface soil stabilization. These guidelines were to be representative of industry standards developed through consensus and are reviewed on a regular basis. Recently the Grouting Committee completed the first draft of guidelines for the performance of Limited Mobility Displacement Grouting entitled “Minimum Guidelines for the Design and Use of Limited Mobility Displacement Grout Injection When Performing Subsurface Soil Stabilization in Karst Florida Environments”. This guideline is currently in the review process and will be revised and finalized in the coming months. It is the hope of the Grouting Committee that establishing a set of minimum guidelines will serve to ensure that grouting is performed properly, thus reducing future remediation failures resulting from improper or inadequate grouting techniques.