Florida’s Office of Insurance Regulation held a meeting last week to discuss raising Citizens’ Property Insurance rates.The governing board for the state-backed insurer, which has become the state’s largest provider, approved an average increase of 14% for more than a million policyholders in June.A decision from FOIR is expected later this month. The CEO of Citizens, Tim Cerio, said the increase is part of their efforts to move Citizens closer to being non-competitive with the private market.“We certainly don’t take our request for a rate increase lightly,” he said.Related: 9 homeowners insurance companies to take over 400,000 Citizens policiesHe said it would bring the company closer to being a solely last-resort insurer.“Nobody wants to face a rate increase, but we believe it’s critical for continued market recovery, continued depopulation, and again to reduce the risk of assessments on non-citizen’s policyholders,” he said.The proposed rates include a 13.5% increase for most homeowners and a 14.2% rise for condo owners.Citizen’s policyholder, Mike Mckee, said he’s one of the roughly 220,000 homeowners dropped by citizens across the state, meaning an even deeper rate hike for him.“They have continually increased the rates,” he said. “In January of this year, I got notified that in one year, so January of 2025, that they would dump me for a company that I had never heard of and the rates after the dump going to this new company would go up 40%… this is going to be unsustainable.”Officials with Citizens also cite fraud and lawsuit costs for causing rates to go up over time.The rate increases, if approved, will take effect in January.
Florida’s Office of Insurance Regulation held a meeting last week to discuss raising Citizens’ Property Insurance rates.
The governing board for the state-backed insurer, which has become the state’s largest provider, approved an average increase of 14% for more than a million policyholders in June.
A decision from FOIR is expected later this month.
The CEO of Citizens, Tim Cerio, said the increase is part of their efforts to move Citizens closer to being non-competitive with the private market.
“We certainly don’t take our request for a rate increase lightly,” he said.
Related: 9 homeowners insurance companies to take over 400,000 Citizens policies
He said it would bring the company closer to being a solely last-resort insurer.
“Nobody wants to face a rate increase, but we believe it’s critical for continued market recovery, continued depopulation, and again to reduce the risk of assessments on non-citizen’s policyholders,” he said.
The proposed rates include a 13.5% increase for most homeowners and a 14.2% rise for condo owners.
Citizen’s policyholder, Mike Mckee, said he’s one of the roughly 220,000 homeowners dropped by citizens across the state, meaning an even deeper rate hike for him.
“They have continually increased the rates,” he said. “In January of this year, I got notified that in one year, so January of 2025, that they would dump me for a company that I had never heard of and the rates after the dump going to this new company would go up 40%… this is going to be unsustainable.”
Officials with Citizens also cite fraud and lawsuit costs for causing rates to go up over time.
The rate increases, if approved, will take effect in January.
