If you live in Florida, you might be overpaying for flood insurance — and unfortunately there's very little you can do about it.

Attorney General James Uthmeier recently filed a lawsuit against First Street Technology, a company that rates individual homes on multiple types of risks. These risk models, which include flood, wildfire and extreme heat, are then used by insurers to determine insurance pricing in the area. The ratings are also provided to consumers through companies like Zillow. Uthmeier alleges that the First Street Technology has broken the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act by misrepresenting Flood risk numbers as accurate to Florida residents. Here's what's behind those claims.

Higher climate numbers means higher insurance rates and less home sales

In the lawsuit, Uthmeier says that First Street's flood risk ratings routinely deviate from trusted, government-made FEMA flood maps.

The lawsuit cites a study that says First Street models agree with FEMA models around 55% of the time, on average, but only around 23% to 24% in areas with medium and high urbanization.

"First Street rates certain properties as major flood risk, but FEMA rates the same properties as minimal flood hazard, the lowest federal certification," said James Uthmeier in an X post on Oct. 23.

The lawsuit also cites a Better Business Bureau complaint where the customer said their house was given a 10/10 flood rating indicating extreme risk, while their next-door neighbors were both given a 1/10 rating.

The lawsuit alleges that First Street's models are faulty, and that they exaggerate the risk that homeowners or prospective home buyers face. This matters because homes with high climate risk ratings tend to sell less often and for lower amounts of money. If underwriters are basing risk on exaggerated numbers, then the insurance they provide will have a higher cost.

"Florida homeowners deserve facts, not alarmist scores that hit their property values and their wallets," Uthmeier said.

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