HB 1503 was signed by Governor Ron DeSantis on Friday, along with a provision. The bill says that lightly regulated insurance companies will be able to soon take over policies from Citizens Property Insurance Corporation. Under the bill, the insurer must have an A-rating by the AM Best Rating Agency and they must have OIR approval for their takeout plan. Citizens’ properties that have a homestead exemption will not be available for takeover by surplus line carriers. Surplus lines are insurers that have not been admitted to the state market. Regulation does not approve their rates, and dispute over a claim with a surplus carrier must take place in a court outside of Florida. Despite being out-of-state insurers, surplus lines are still subject to Florida regulatory oversight in some areas. Surplus carriers will insure risker and more expensive homes that the domestic market won’t cover. Domestic carriers in the state have already been allowed to take over policies from Citizens once OIR approves. Customers at Citizens must opt out of the process if they do not want to join the new company, but the law states Citizens’ customers have to go to the private market if they are offered a rate that is within 20% of what Citizens’ rate is. Citizens has around 1.19 million policies (as reported by data on their website), and lawmakers have been working to reduce the number of polices under Citizens to reduce the risk of assessments of homeowners’ policies in the event a major hurricane or series of storms wiped Citizens’ out of their ability to pay claims. Citizens Insurance has seen policy counts jump in recent years as the private market has struggled. Thousands of homeowners have been left to find last minute coverage when their policy holder has gone bust or imposed large rate hikes. In 2021, Citizens had just over 540,000 policies – and that number has more than doubled.

Sourced from St. Pete Rising Exclusive Release