Lawmaker Says Drop Out Of State Customers From Citizens Insurance

September 15, 2013

Out-of-state residents who own property in Florida may again be the target of legislative efforts to further reduce the number of policies at the state-backed Citizens Property Insurance Corp.

Rep. Bill Hager, R-Delray Beach, said that lawmakers next year could discuss prohibiting people who don’t live in Florida from being eligible for coverage from Citizens.

“During the 2013 legislative session, my colleagues in the Florida Legislature and I made some necessary, forward progress to reform Florida’s Citizens Property Insurance Corp,” Hager said in a news release. “However, the figures of current out-of-state and out-of-country policies are evidence that there is still more work to be done.”

Hager, vice chairman of the House Insurance and Banking Subcommittee, was responding to the Stronger Safer Florida Coalition, which questioned Florida property owners “subsidizing” nearly 180,000 Citizens policies that are held by people who live out-of-state.

The coalition includes the Florida Chamber of Commerce, Associated Industries of Florida and the Florida Wildlife Federation.

A similar proposal was discussed during the 2013 session but was not included in a final package  directed at revamping and reducing the size of Citizens. The state-backed company had 1.22 million policies as of July 31.

by The News Service of Florida

Comments

6 Responses to “Lawmaker Says Drop Out Of State Customers From Citizens Insurance”

  1. David Huie Green on September 17th, 2013 10:59 am

    REGARDING:
    “It would also seem the more customers a non-profit insurance company has, the stronger it would be?”

    Only if the customers were good prospects in the first place, unlikely to need a pay-out before they paid in more than they cost. Citizens was formed to provide insurance for bad prospects, people likely to soon need million dollar pay-outs. The more of those you take in, the more you are likely to have to pay out, disproportionately so.

    David for storm-proof structures

  2. Henry Coe on September 16th, 2013 1:52 pm

    It would seem non-residents should just get charged a non-resident rate that isn’t subsidized?

    It would also seem the more customers a non-profit insurance company has, the stronger it would be?

  3. Carolyn Bramblett on September 16th, 2013 5:23 am

    The State of Florida should not be in the insurance business. We should not have to subsidize anyone else. There should be no extras on my car insurance because the State created this monstrosity. I pay my own bills and others should have to do the same.

  4. LS on September 16th, 2013 1:45 am

    Here’s an idea, maybe, if they can afford property in Florida and live somewhere else, maybe, they can pay their own insurance and not rely on the state to subsidize them

  5. David Huie Green on September 15th, 2013 5:47 pm

    REGARDING:
    “Hager, vice chairman of the House Insurance and Banking Subcommittee, was responding to the Stronger Safer Florida Coalition, which questioned Florida property owners “subsidizing” nearly 180,000 Citizens policies that are held by people who live out-of-state.”

    I don’t like the idea of Citizens Insurance in general because it insures structures which should not be insured — or not at such a low rate — and pays for it in part with insurance payments by other people who live in more reasonable locations. But to be fair, I suspect these folks ARE paying property taxes in the State of Florida.

    Therefore, when Bill Hager says “the Florida Legislature and I made some necessary, forward progress to reform Florida’s Citizens Property Insurance Corp,” one wonders if it is actually necessary or simply desirable, and if so, to whom?

    Let’s see, if they couldn’t insure it without moving citizenship to Florida or selling it to Floridians, that would dump many properties on the market all at once or set up puppet ownerships with Florida citizens being the nominal owners but actually just being go-betweens.

    And the benefit would be?

    David for fairness and necessity

  6. DT on September 15th, 2013 8:07 am

    Well, if out of state/country property owners are denied insurance protection, makes sense for them to not own property in Fl. How well will this work out for state revenues? Talk about another real estate crash.