Barnes Island Investment, LLC was sold an insurance policy from Daniel at Sol Insurance. Daniel at Sol Insurance withdrew monies from our bank account for a year's worth of coverage upfront. Barnes Island Investment, LLC sold the home a few months later after purchasing the policy. When we asked for a refund check to be sent to us for the remaining days of the year where coverages were not provided we got slow responses and excuses from Daniel and the members at Sol Insurance. After nearly a half a year, several months of calling and multiple emails Danial at Sol Insurance sent us a check for the days that coverage was not provided (or so we thought). Daniel, the presumed owner at Sol Insurance, prorated the amount Sol Insurance owed back to us not based on the annual premium that we prepaid, but a maternally lower number. Daniel and or Sol Insurance debited our bank account for the year upfront for $509.19. However, when a check was sent to us for the days left in the year that coverage wasn't provided due to cancelation they prorated the amount they owed back to us based on a figure of only $378.00 and not $509.19. When we finally caught the accounting scheme when we closed the books at years end, we emailed Daniel confronting him. In summary, Daniel said the portion of the pre-paid monies between $378.00 and $509.19 go to the "carrier", also include taxes and are non refundable. Does the state still keeps the taxes on the product that was not provided and or returned? We emailed the insurance carrier and the insurance "carrier" rebutted Daniel's claims explaining that $100.00 of the amount over $378.00 went to the broker for commission and rest of the spread was taxes of which the taxes for the balance for the year where coverage was not provided was paid back on a prorated basis and such was itemized on the policy cancelation endorsement. We sent this to Daniel. Daniel emailed us back and said "the brokerage fee" is non refundable. We emailed Daniel and asked him to point to us where in the contract he provided to us (prior to debiting our bank account for a full year) disclosed this "fee" was non refundable and how they would compute the amount due back to us if the policy was canceled before a year passed, as well as other specific disclosures in the insurance agreement. Daniel emailed us back but didn't point out these items in the contract in the reply email, presumably because he can not because they do not exist in the contract as they should and ended the email with "I will not respond further on this matter." We have experience purchasing insurance and this is not how refunds for unearned premium have been handled in the past with a number of other insurance providers / brokers we have dealt with.
We should have known better to deal with this cast of characters, given the fact that this wasn't the first problem we had with them. Insurance companies are under an obligation to provide to you disclosures, within a certain period of time, if your insurance is going to increase by a materially higher amount before your current policy expires. Before our policy expired, prior to this one, we got a letter in the mail dictating what the amount would be on the new policy. When we went to renew, we were told last minute it was going to be much more expensive for the following year then the letter indicated (however it was never disclosed to us in a mailing upfront that it would be more expensive on renewal). This disclosure is important because proper notice per law gives the consumer time to shop for a lower rate before renewal to help prevent an insurance company or agent from trying to stick up a consumer for much more money at the last second to get coverage for the next year before the current policy expires . We expressed that we were never notified of such per the law that the rate was going to increase so heavily for the next period. They said you were, except we sent paperwork with the wrong (lower) figures for renewal compared to what they were actually going to be (higher). They tried to justify this by saying they accidently sent a policy renewal notice from a few years ago by mistake (that had a lower premium on it).
- Matt Barnes on behalf of Barnes Island Investment, LLC
If you payment issue with a business in Miami FL you may want consider notifying the Miami Dade Economics Crimes Bureau at (305) 994-1000. There are other resources available to you as well if you are a concerned consumer in Miami Dade such as the Miami Dade Consumer Protection Division 786-469-2300. read more
