End Insurance Company Abuses

Florida homeowners pay the highest property insurance premiums in the nation. But the crisis is not just about cost; it is about conduct. After every hurricane season, insurance companies engage in systematic abuse: delaying legitimate claims for months, sending lowball adjusters to minimize payouts, denying coverage on technicalities, and non-renewing policies on homeowners who have the audacity to file a claim after their roof is torn off by a Category 4 storm. The 2022 legislative "reforms" made it harder for homeowners to sue their insurers, which is exactly what the insurance lobby wanted. The result: insurers report record profitability while homeowners get the runaround.

Chris Gleason will fight for a federal Homeowner Insurance Bill of Rights that mandates timely claims processing, prohibits bad-faith claims handling practices, and ensures homeowners have meaningful recourse when insurance companies fail to honor their contracts. He will push for federal oversight of reinsurance pricing to prevent costs from being passed through to homeowners without accountability.

Cut Regulations and Zoning Restrictions

Government red tape is the single largest hidden tax on new home construction. Overlapping building codes, months-long permitting delays, and restrictive zoning laws that ban higher-density housing in areas that desperately need it have driven up the cost of building new homes by tens of thousands of dollars per unit. Impact fees, environmental review bottlenecks, and "not in my backyard" zoning restrictions create artificial scarcity that benefits existing landowners and incumbent developers at the expense of young families looking for a starter home.

Chris Gleason will push federal legislation to incentivize states and municipalities that streamline permitting processes, eliminate redundant building codes, and reform zoning laws to allow for more housing types. He will support tying federal infrastructure and transportation funding to zoning reform benchmarks, ensuring that communities receiving taxpayer dollars are also opening doors for new housing construction.

End Predatory Foreclosure Practices and Ban HOA Abuse

Florida's more than 48,000 homeowners associations and condo associations have become unaccountable mini-governments with the power to fine, lien, and foreclose on the very homeowners they are supposed to serve. Families have been hit with $250 fines for leaving a garbage can out 30 minutes past schedule. Seniors on fixed incomes have faced foreclosure over disputed special assessments. HOA boards operate in secrecy, levy fines without due process, and rack up legal fees that get passed directly to the homeowner. Meanwhile, the broader foreclosure system continues to suffer from the same predatory practices that defined the 2008 crisis: robo-signing, improper documentation, dual-tracking by mortgage servicers, and forced-place insurance that enriches servicers at the expense of struggling homeowners.

The federal lever: HOA governance is traditionally a state matter, but federal law already regulates the financial institutions, mortgage servicers, and government-backed loan programs that interact with HOA liens. Congress has the authority to set minimum consumer protection standards for any foreclosure involving a federally backed mortgage, and to condition FHA and VA loan eligibility on HOA compliance with transparency and due process requirements.

Chris Gleason will fight for federal legislation that prohibits HOAs and condo associations from initiating foreclosure proceedings against primary residences for amounts below $5,000, mandates full financial transparency and independent audits for all associations with more than 50 units, and creates a federal right of action for homeowners subjected to bad-faith fines, selective enforcement, or retaliatory board conduct. He will also push for stronger federal foreclosure protections that ban dual-tracking, require mandatory mediation before any foreclosure filing, and impose real penalties on servicers who engage in robo-signing or document fabrication.

Hold Banks and Private Equity Accountable

The same financial institutions that crashed the housing market in 2008 have found a new playbook: instead of writing bad mortgages to families, they are buying the houses themselves. Banks provide the financing, private equity provides the capital, and corporate landlord operators provide the management. The result is an integrated financial machine designed to extract maximum rent from communities while building zero equity for the people who actually live there. When the market dips, these firms buy more. When rents rise, they squeeze harder. When families complain, they answer to their shareholders, not their tenants.

Chris Gleason will push for legislation requiring full transparency in bank lending to institutional home buyers, including mandatory public disclosure of loans made to entities purchasing residential properties in bulk. He will support reinstating and strengthening Glass-Steagall protections that separate commercial banking from speculative real estate investment, and will push for increased capital requirements on banks financing bulk residential purchases.