It's Time to Abolish Managed Repair Programs in Florida

Imagine losing your home to a fire—only to be told by your insurance company that you don’t get to choose who repairs it. Worse yet, the company they send isn’t properly vetted, cuts corners, and violates local building codes. This isn’t a nightmare. It’s what too many Floridians face today under so-called “managed repair” programs.

These programs—quietly buried in insurance policies—strip homeowners of their most basic right: the right to choose who enters their home and repairs their property. Under the managed repair model, the insurer selects the contractor, sets the scope of work, and locks the policyholder into repairs they neither approve nor control. And when something goes wrong, it’s the homeowner, not the insurer, who suffers the consequences.

Let me be absolutely clear: managed repair programs are broken, abusive, and should be outlawed.

In Florida, it is illegal under F.S. §489.127 to act as a contractor without a license. Yet insurance companies routinely skirt this law by "subbing out" repair work, all while dictating the process. That’s contracting in every functional sense, and they do it without holding a contractor’s license or any regulatory oversight from the DBPR. If a homeowner were to do this, they’d be fined or even criminally charged. When an insurer does it, they're protected.

A recent case in Jacksonville shows just how dangerous this system has become. A woman left homeless after a fire, watched her insurer’s contractor receive a city stop-work order—effectively halting all repairs. Months later, she’s still waiting to return home. Who holds the insurer accountable for that? No one. And that’s the problem.

These managed repair schemes are not about consumer protection. They’re about controlling payouts and maximizing profits, often at the expense of quality, safety, and homeowner autonomy. In some cases, insurers even have financial relationships with the vendors they assign—an undisclosed conflict of interest that would never be allowed in any other industry.

As a licensed Public Adjuster, I’ve seen firsthand how these programs leave policyholders powerless and exposed. As Florida’s next Chief Financial Officer, I won’t just regulate these abuses—I will work with lawmakers to ban managed repair programs altogether.

Floridians deserve better than fine print traps and one-sided repair schemes. They deserve the right to hire their own licensed professionals, to oversee the work done on their property, and to hold those responsible accountable when things go wrong.

Let’s end managed repair once and for all—and return control where it belongs: with the homeowner.