Private Insurers Coming Back to Florida Property Insurance Scene

When you buy a property insurance policy, you want to make sure you will be paid for any valid claims you make. This is especially important in areas prone to severe weather, such as the State of Florida. Floridians are no strangers to property damage and destruction and need to be insured by a reliable carrier.

Citizens Property Insurance is a state run insurer and the largest carrier in Florida. Lately, there have been doubts regarding Citizens ability to pay out in the event of a catastrophic storm and the company itself has been trying to reduce the amount of policies it holds. The Florida Office of Insurance Regulators has recently given Citizens this opportunity. The regulators have decided that a group of private insurance companies can assume a large number of Citizens’ policies. In fact, the fourteen or so private insurers are allowed to take 425,000 residential policies and a few thousand commercial policies from Citizens. This number is a cap on the amount of policies these companies can remove, meaning that they can and most likely will take less. Two companies, Heritage Property & Casualty Insurance Co. and Elements Property Insurance, have been authorized to take a large portion of the policies.

This widespread removal, along with a new website that pushes Floridians to secure private insurance before trying to obtain a policy with Citizens will hopefully reduce the cases in which Citizens denies coverage or pays less than is owed. After the state was pummeled with hard-hitting storms a decade ago, the private insurance industry has struggled. Now, these insurers will hopefully return to the market. This also means that many residents with Citizens’ policies may be seeing a change to their property insurance carrier soon.

Pekar Law practices primarily in the area of property insurance law in the Tampa, Florida area. If you have a property insurance law matter you would like to discuss, call us for a free initial consultation.