citizens

Citizens drops Florida property insurance policies

Citizens Property Insurance Corp. has started dropping policies of some homeowners across Florida because the estimated price of replacing their homes after a storm or fire would now exceed a $700,000 replacement value cap.

Citizens Property Insurance Corp. has started dropping policies of some homeowners across Florida because the estimated price of replacing their homes after a storm or fire would now exceed a $700,000 replacement value cap.


designer491

Getty Images/iStockphoto

Rising inflation has cost hundreds of Florida homeowners citizens-policies-dropped-due-to-700k-cap-20220713-fcr7gc6tt5bgjecikjg3efrywu-story.html”access to affordable property insurance.

New data provided by state-owned Citizens Property Insurance Corp., Florida’s “insurer of last resort,” shows that the company dropped 2,267 policies statewide during the 12-months ending June 30 because their homes’ replacement value exceeded $700,000.

That’s the company’s eligibility cap in all counties except Miami-Dade and Monroe, where Citizens can insure homes valued up to $1 million.The caps could be increased in Broward, Palm Beach and other counties if a new study by the state Office of Insurance Regulation finds that homeowners lack access to affordable coverage from private market insurers and have little choice except Citizens. In Broward County over the past year, Citizens sent notices of non-renewal to 617 homes with replacement values exceeding the $700,000 eligibility cap. In Palm Beach County, 454 were dropped.

Read the full story here.

This story was originally published July 13, 2022 5:35 PM.

… Read the rest

July 19, 2022 by INSURANCE

42,000 Louisiana homeowners dropped by insurance company Friday; State Insurance Commissioner addresses crisis

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) – 42,000 homeowners are looking for a new insurance policy as of Friday. The company, Southern Fidelity dropped them and now they have 60 days to find a new policy.

Nearly 100,000 policyholders total have been dropped by Southern Fidelity, Lighthouse Excalibur and Maison.

Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon says six companies have pulled out completely and more than 50 have stopped writing new policies below I-10 and I-12, making the state’s insurer of last resort, Louisiana Citizens, the only option for most.

“As we get further away and hopefully go unscathed through this hurricane season, more of those companies will return to the market, I am certain, as it happened 15 years ago after Katrina and Rita,” Donelon said.

Southern Fidelity customers have until September 13 to find a new policy or sign with Citizens.

Lighthouse and Maison have until August 28.

If you sign with Citizens, the coverage will be retroactive back to the day your policy was canceled, so there’s no gap.

Donelon says the number of Citizens’ policies has jumped from 35,000 to 82,000 and he expects it to grow to 95,000.

That overwhelmed the system, which only has two computer servers. That’s why

… Read the rest
July 17, 2022 by INSURANCE

Citizen’s Property Insurance facing 900 new lawsuits a month

One month after state lawmakers were summoned back to Tallahassee to fix Florida’s broken homeowner’s insurance industry, the crisis continues.

“As we sit here today, we are just under 19,000, but quickly approaching 19,000 lawsuits,” said Elaina Paskalakis of Citizen’s Property Insurance, during a claims committee meeting earlier this month.

Citizens, the sate-backed insurer of last resort isn’t just facing mounting litigation, it is also absorbing some 12,000 policies a month.

READ: New affordable housing community for seniors opens in Orange County

“Last year at this time they (Citizens) were growing at about 5,000 policies a week, so they are growing exponentially more,” says State Senator Jeff Brandes (R-Pinellas). “They have about $6 billion in cash and about $300 billion in potential liability if they have a big storm.”

With police and lawsuits piling up, Citizens recently approved $50 million for litigation costs, with the state-backed insurer set to approve another $50 million when it meets again in July.

“It is all hands on deck at Citizens, and frankly I don’t know how they are going to manage all this, we would never let a private insurance company grow as fast as citizens is growing right now,” says Brandes.

… Read the rest
July 1, 2022 by INSURANCE
April 2024
M T W T F S S
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
2930