By Paul Waldmiller
Did you know that approximately 100,000 current Citizens insurance policyholders could be switched to a new insurer with higher premiums?
Citizens insurance was created by the Florida legislature in 2002 as a non-profit government entity to insure homes that private companies would not insure. After many insurance companies began filing for bankruptcy or leaving Florida, the state began working to find a way for homeowners to insure their homes. Citizens was dubbed by legislators as the “insurer of last resort.”
Now, state operated-Citizens is beginning to dump homeowners’ policies to other insurance carriers including a company called, Slide. Allegedly, Slide was approved to take up to 100,000 policies from Citizens.
According to Ron Assise, a Senior Vice President with an insurance brokerage service The Horton Group, “It’s very easy for a current Citizens policyholder to gravitate towards it being a bad thing, and from and immediate standpoint, they very likely will be paying more.”
Earlier this year when Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law an updated bill regarding Citizens, policy holders are now required to get a quote from a private insurance company before they can even renew their policy. This made the process of having home insurance coverage in our state that much more difficult.