Homeowners Insurance Companies Jacksonville Fl

Homeowners Insurance Companies Jacksonville Fl – 1 hour ago Charity gave to dozens of military members and their families at the Timuquana Country Club on Sunday

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Property insurance experts say it’s a step in the right direction in helping Florida consumers hit by the home insurance crisis.

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Now, steps are underway to have five insurers take over nearly 200,000 policies from Citizens Property Insurance, in an effort to empty what is supposed to be the “insurer of last resort” in Florida.

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Florida’s insurance commissioner recently signed orders approving proposals from five companies to take over policies for thousands of citizens as early as October. The good news is that this is a sign that private insurers want more business in Florida, but it could be bad news for some citizen policyholders who will have to switch.

Citizens Property Insurance, a state-backed insurer in Florida, has grown at a historic rate over the past two years and now has 1.35 million policies. The company is adding an average of 7,500 policies each week and has the potential to break back for the first time in years.

A spokesman for the Insurance Information Institute, Mark Friedlander, said that this means that private insurers have been given the go-ahead to take out policies for thousands of citizens.

The five companies in the mix include Slide Insurance Company, Safepoint Insurance Co., Southern Oak Insurance Co., Florida Peninsula Co. and Monarch National Insurance Company.

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“You only need to take it if it’s within 20% of what you pay for national coverage. Let’s say you are now paying $3,000 for a Citizens policy premium, and you get a takeover offer from a private company for $3,500. You should accept this offer even though it is higher than what you pay for Citizens. Friedlander said.

Although Friedlander said some Citizens customers may see another rate increase with their new insurance provider, it is notable that Citizens policies tend to be cheaper than policies offered by private companies. The five companies will be able to selectively choose which home owner policies they want to take out, taking into account the age of the roof on the house, proximity to the coast and other assumed risks.

“Certainly the wild card in any type of program that helps stabilize the property insurance market in Florida is hurricane activity. And not only the scale, but the effects in terms of property damage and a devastating hurricane would certainly be a hindrance to the entire property insurance market in Florida, as well as any plans to depopulate the citizens, without a doubt,” he said. .

If you are a Citizens customer and the takeover offer is more than 20% of your current premium, homeowners can decline acceptance and stay with Citizens.

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Friedlander said all the companies that could take over Citizen’s policies are in good financial standing and are not on the state’s watch list. Cheryl Montgomery and her late husband couldn’t find insurance for their 1925 cabin near Hollingsworth Lake, despite spending more than $150,000 to restore it. | Barry Friedman,

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Farmers Insurance Group announced Tuesday that it is pulling out of Florida, becoming the 15th company to go out of business in the state in the past 18 months — adding to the seven companies that filed for bankruptcy in the same timeframe.

Insurance Commissioner Michael Yaworsky sent a letter to the company saying he was disappointed with the haste of the decision and the way it was communicated and was “concerned about how this decision could have cascading effects on policyholders.”

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Lacey Gardner, a licensed agent at Family Insurance Centers in Lakeland, said “technically” eight to 10 insurance companies still write policies nationwide. But most have strict contracting guidelines which exclude most homes in our area.

“They passed a law that says carriers can’t deny coverage just based on the age of the roof if it’s less than 15 years old. They also cannot replace the shelf if the roof has a useful life of five years or more,” he said.

The measure was intended to curb fraudulent roofing claims and unnecessary replacements. But it had dire, unintended consequences for older homeowners.

“Now conveyancers are denying it based on the year the house was built,” Gardner said. For homes built before 1950 – which includes many properties in Lakeland – “it’s very difficult to find any carrier that will write a policy.”

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The cut-off years vary depending on the insurance company. Gardner said one company she works with won’t insure any homes built before 1995. Another will only cover homes that are 2015 or newer.

Jared Faniel, a State Farm agent in Lakeland for the past four years, said State Farm’s insurance requirements are based on changes to the building code.

With nowhere else to go, more and more local homeowners have turned to the state-backed Citizens Property Insurance Corp., which was founded 20 years ago as an insurer of last resort. Across the country, the number of Citizen policies recently topped 1.3 million, almost triple the number three years ago.

Its growth has been even more impressive in Polk County, where the number of citizen policies has increased more than eightfold in the past few years – from 2,040 at the start of 2020 to 17,177 last month. The rapid increase has raised concerns about the company’s ability to service policyholders in the event of a disaster.

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Gracie Hernandez is one of those new Citizens policyholders. In June 2021, he bought a 1951 bungalow near Bonny Lake, a few blocks from Southeastern University.

“This is our first home. We used to rent a duplex in Lake Morton,” Hernandez said. “The market was crazy. We looked at 13 or 14 houses, they looked at it for 20 minutes on Saturday and then made an offer.”

Looking back, it’s not sure we should have acted so quickly. Shortly after moving in, a plumbing problem involving cast iron pipes was discovered. This led to a claim with their insurance company at the time: Universal Property & Casualty Insurance Co.

“When we started with Universal, our premium was $3,200,” Hernandez said. “When it came time to renew, it was $4,500. Universal temporarily suspended writing new policies after Hurricane Ian.

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“I ended up going with nationals because no one else wanted to cover me. They quoted me homeowners insurance for $3,759, but my hurricane deductible is $11,000,” Hernandez said.

When homeowners find insurance, the costs can be staggering. In 2022, Floridians paid nearly three times the national average for property insurance — $4,231 a year compared to $1,544 — according to the Insurance Information Institute.

This year, the organization predicted that premiums in Florida will increase more than 40 percent to more than $5,900 annually. The Florida Association of Insurance Agents is even higher, predicting at a conference last month that the average homeowner’s insurance premium will reach $6,400 by the end of the year.

Both groups note that, in addition to fraud and litigation, the industry is facing pressure from Hurricane Ian, inflation, reinsurance costs and supply chain disruptions.

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“When your home that you bought for $250,000 needs to be rebuilt and it’s going to cost $380,000 because of construction costs, I have to insure your house for $380,000 because I’m insuring it for the rebuild,” Gardner explained.

Claudia Slate, a retired College of South Florida professor, said the Progressive insurance premium on her South Lakeland home in 1994 has risen from $5,100 to more than $8,000 this year, despite having no claims and having an audit of the roof.

“The agent practically admitted to me that they were trying to push me out,” Slate said. And it worked. “Finally, we were able to get a citizen’s policy with a premium of $5,110.”

However, citizen premiums will also increase. The Office of Insurance Regulation was asked to approve an average increase of 13.1% for homeowners and 10.1% for homeowners in Polk County this year. If approved, the new rates would come into effect on November 1, although policyholders would not pay more until the renewal date.

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“No one wants their prices to rise. We completely understand that,” said Citizens President and CEO Tim Cerio. “But the fact is that interest rates for citizens remain actuarially unstable and artificially low. This inadequacy is unsustainable and increases the graduation risk for all Florida insurance consumers.”

Unsecured is not an option for everyone, especially those with mortgages from traditional lenders. But the cost and lack of options have forced some Lakeland residents with paid-off homes, like 76-year-old Cheryl Montgomery, to take a chance.

Montgomery and her late husband, Donald, received the city’s residential beautification award two years ago