Citizens Files for 90 Percent Policy Hike in Parts of Fla.

Depending on policyholders’ coverage and location, Citizens Property Insurance Corp. has asked the Florida Insurance Commission for permission to raise rates by as much as 90 percent.

Citizens, the state’s insurer of last resort, is asking regulators to approve a statewide increase of 23 percent for 220,000 general homeowners’ policies and at the same time wants to raise wind-only policy rates by about 12 percent.

Citizens is also seeking to raise rates for rental, condominium and mobile homes. Commercial properties won’t be affected by the filing.

The state has 60 days to review the filing. If approved, the higher rates would start going into effect as early as Feb. 1 for some policies.

Policy rates are determined by coverage and geography, with prices in some areas increasing by 1 percent, and others as much as 90 percent. Citizens has more than 880,000 policyholders in Florida.

Citizens officials say they worked closely with regulators on the rate request and expect it to be approved. State insurance regulators said recently that Citizens rates are too low, giving people no incentive to try to get traditional insurance.

Citizens is required to keep rates higher than the private insurance market, and some of those companies have filed requests to raise rates.

Several Florida insurance companies, including private-market leader State Farm, want to raise their average homeowners’ rates by as much as 25 percent, according to recent regulatory filings.

Topics Florida