Florida’s Citizens Insurance Rate Increase Approved

July 27, 2010

Hoping to gain ground on what critics say are actuarially unsound rates, the board of governors of the state-created property insurance pool on Monday approved rate increase requests of up to 10.2 percent for homeowners while proposing to drop rates for thousands of others in less vulnerable parts of the state.

Meeting via phone, the Citizens Property Insurance Corp. board voted unanimously to seek new rates for most of their nearly 1.2 million policyholders who get their insurance from what is now the largest property insurer in the state.

Among other large groups, the board approved rate increase requests of 7.4 percent for mobile homeowners and 2.2 percent for condominium owners. Renters would get a break, with average rates dropping 2.2 percent.

All rates must still be approved by the Office of Insurance Regulation and would begin going into effect for policies renewed early next year.

“Right now this is only a request,” said Citizens spokeswoman Christine Ashburn.

Homeowners would see a maximum increase of 10.2 percent, thanks in large part to a 10-percent cap placed on rate hikes by lawmakers in 2008. If unregulated, Citizens estimates that rates would have to rise nearly 56 percent to make the rates commensurate with the risk.

Commercial property owners will see rates going up an average of 11.6 percent, which includes a 1.6 percent increase to help build up the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund. Lawmakers are trying to shore up the fund, which is used to offset losses after private companies pay out in the event of a storm.

Some policyholders in Lee County will see rates drop by 10 percent, while others in the county will see rates climb by 10.7 percent, the highest rate allowable.

Citizens now insures most coastal residents by providing wind and multi-peril insurance to homeowners, businesses and other commercial property owners. Lawmakers have spent the past several sessions trying to bolster the private insurance market by making Citizens rates more in line with what private companies would charge to cover coastal risk.

Comments

5 Responses to “Florida’s Citizens Insurance Rate Increase Approved”

  1. shirley on July 27th, 2011 4:50 pm

    Private property owners are being forced off of their property throught excessive regulation and not by insurance costs no one can afford in this economy!

  2. Joe Goodof on July 29th, 2010 6:12 pm

    Having paid in full the quoted price for a 12 month homeowner’s policy with Citizens,I have this day received the policy and an additonal bill for the approx 10% increase that has been mentioned in this article…..

  3. David Huie Green on July 28th, 2010 2:20 pm

    If you build a flimsy structure on a sand bar on the edge of the Gulf of Mexico and pay for insurance to have it replaced after it is destroyed by one of our many hurricanes, you should expect to have to pay enough for the expense. Pay as you go makes sense.

    Florida politicians got money from the building on the sand so they didn’t care about the expense. Our economy was built on building on shaky foundation in dangerous places. They offset the expense by raising the rates on those who did not choose to build foolishly close to disaster.

    It is possible to build structures which can stand up to hurricanes; the insurance should be low on them. Builders want to spend as little as possible so they can pocket as much money as possible. As long as we bow to builders and suck up to those who can afford to live on the beaches at our expense, nothing will change but the replacements.

    David for fair rates for dangerous practices

  4. Stuart on July 27th, 2010 12:50 pm

    If you look at the numbers, this is the only possible option. They will probably go up again next year.

    If you want to do the math, take the cost to REPLACE your home, divide it by 5 or 10 and that should be in the ball park of your premium.

  5. Sean McCoy on July 27th, 2010 6:31 am

    I cannot believe our Government. There is no help !!!!! We are getting the shaft.

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News