[Ghaati]

Originally Posted by Sunshine Rules

To obtain insurance thru Citizens, FL homeowners have to meet the following criteria:

You are unable to secure coverage with any other private home insurance provider.
or
The quotes private insurers have given you are at least 20% more expensive than a comparable Citizens policy.

...and, your home can't have a replacement value of $700k or more, unless you're in the Miami-Dade area. Then, it can't be more than $1M.

So if you have a super-nice house, and your insurance company's skipped town, and no other provider wants to touch it, you're just SOL.

[Mathguy]

Flash back about 15 years and remember the state screaming how the insurers like state farm were "gouging" and that everything was hunky dory? Then Citizens became the largest homeowners insurer in the state.

After that, they freaked out and have been trying to shrink.

They kept kicking that can down the road, but fortunately have at least made some reforms recently.

Dishonesty and not facing the problem head on back around 2009 and you got what you go now.

[sinatras]

Originally Posted by LKJ1988

I though you were loaded so pay it off.

Not everyone is "loaded". As a matter of fact most Americans are barely scraping by. In fact, 50% of Americans have less than $500 in their bank accounts, much less the money to pay off their mortgage.

[Vector1]

Originally Posted by Corrie22

no I'm not sure....that's not what I think....it's what I read

what I understand is if you can't insure with anyone else....you can get Citizens

The trouble with Citizens is that those not affected by an individual incident can be on the hook for a substantial payout (akin to a special assessment). Now before someone says major private companies spread the pain by raising rates, that is different because you can decide to pay, or go to another company with more favorable rates/deductions/limits etc.
So while Citizens is good to have as a safety net for those who cannot get insured (sometimes for simply a roof that is over 10 years old that major companies wont touch), it is not the place you want to be insured if possible.

[Sunshine Rules]

For far too many years the state legislature gave law firms the green light to file a multitude of lawsuits against insurance companies.

According to National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) data mined by the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation, while Florida homeowners insurance claims accounted for just over 8% of all homeowners claims opened by U.S. insurers in 2019, homeowners insurance lawsuits in Florida accounted for more than 76% of all litigation against insurers nationwide.

Previous years were no better: NAIC data that shows Florida lawsuits rose steadily from 64.4% of all nationwide homeowners lawsuits in 2016, to 68% in 2017, to 79.9% in 2018 and 76.4% in 2019.

A huge portion of the lawsuits had to do with roofing scams in which roofers were offering to inspect homeowners roofs after a major storm system passed thru, then claiming there was damage but the roofers could get the homeowners new roofs if they signed paperwork that actually gave the roofers rights to file the insurance claims themselves. The contractors then filed fraudulent damage claims, and when the insurance companies balked, the contractors sued. The insurance companies usually settled the disputed claims for many times more than the original claim. Most of that money then went to the contractors’ lawyers in the form of a “contingency fee multiplier.” Some lawyers filed hundreds of such lawsuits a year.

The homeowner may have gotten a free roof, but everyone paid for it through increased rates.

In 2021, the Florida Legislature finally got off their collective backsides and passed SB 76 which restructures litigation rules for disputed insurance claims. In 2022, a second bill, SB 2-D provided further litigation reforms by limiting the assignment of attorney’s fees to third parties in property insurance cases, and disincentivizing frivolous claims.


These legislative changes included stricter rules on roof replacements, restrictions on how contractors advertise and a prohibition on insurers refusing to cover homes with roofs less than 15 years old. The legislation also put a limit on attorneys’ fees and require insurance companies to explain in more detail their decisions on damage claims to homeowners.

The changes are finally starting to have an effect. I read recently that FL insurance lawsuits are down over 20% so far this year. Not enough, but a start.


Back to the original topic of Progressive insurance dropping policies here in FL. They actually started that last year. I know because my policy was one of the ones that was dropped. No claims, long time customer, almost new roof. Didn't matter according to the various Progressive reps I spoke with. They were dropping over 50,000 policies in what they considered potentially high claim areas last year and my home happened to be in the targeted area.

It's not just Florida. State Farm announced plans to drop 72,000 CA policy holders this year & will not be writing new policies there. Other states where insurance companies have announced they are pulling back on coverage include Arkansas, Colorado, Louisiana, Minnesota, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota and Washington.

I've noticed a new trend by insurance companies in which they continue to offer insurance policies but exclude natural disaster coverage such as fires in CA, hurricanes in FL. Those now have to be covered under separately purchased (and expensive) supplemental policies.

[Mathguy]

Originally Posted by Sunshine Rules

I've noticed a new trend by insurance companies in which they continue to offer insurance policies but exclude natural disaster coverage such as fires in CA, hurricanes in FL. Those now have to be covered under separately purchased (and expensive) supplemental policies.

Can you be more specific there about what you are seeing, let's focus on just FL as each state is different and it can make the discussion messy.

They can actually exclude specifically Hurricane in FL?

[sinatras]

Originally Posted by Sunshine Rules

For far too many years the state legislature gave law firms the green light to file a multitude of lawsuits against insurance companies.

According to National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) data mined by the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation, while Florida homeowners insurance claims accounted for just over 8% of all homeowners claims opened by U.S. insurers in 2019, homeowners insurance lawsuits in Florida accounted for more than 76% of all litigation against insurers nationwide.

I find it EXTREMELY HARD TO BELIEVE THAT 76% of litigation against insurers in Fla is property related. Just drive on any Florida road and there is an ambulance chaser lawyer on every billboard BEGGING people to file lawsuits over car accidents.

There has GOT to be vastly more auto insurance claims in this state than property claims.

[City Guy997S]

Originally Posted by Sunshine Rules

To obtain insurance thru Citizens, FL homeowners have to meet the following criteria:

You are unable to secure coverage with any other private home insurance provider.
or
The quotes private insurers have given you are at least 20% more expensive than a comparable Citizens policy.

and the house can't be worth more than 750K

[City Guy997S]

Originally Posted by Mathguy

Can you be more specific there about what you are seeing, let's focus on just FL as each state is different and it can make the discussion messy.

They can actually exclude specifically Hurricane in FL?

Yes IF you own the property outright/no mortgage.

You get homeowners insurance but NO windstorm.

[City Guy997S]

Originally Posted by Mathguy

Flash back about 15 years and remember the state screaming how the insurers like state farm were "gouging" and that everything was hunky dory? Then Citizens became the largest homeowners insurer in the state.

After that, they freaked out and have been trying to shrink.

They kept kicking that can down the road, but fortunately have at least made some reforms recently.

Dishonesty and not facing the problem head on back around 2009 and you got what you go now.

Citizens is a scam............they are backed by the state of Florida. So in a catastrophic hurricane, the state is on the hook for any loss that Citizens might take.