Escalating Uncertainties of The Property Insurance Market in Florida
The Palm Beach Post recently quoted Mark Friedlander from III, “The private insurance marketplace now is on a trajectory for collapse.” Insurers across Florida have been dropping clients, stopped writing policies, or even doubled policy renewal rates. A similar situation in Louisianna has led at least ten property insurers to leave the market since 2020, and five others have stopped writing new policies.
Recently, there have been sessions of lawmakers taking place at Tallahassee, Florida, concerning the property insurance market. If fruitful, the sessions would create a $2 billion reinsurance fund and prohibit insurers from automatically denying coverage to homeowners with older roofs. Furthermore, there will be an approximate savings of around $1 billion for the homeowners across Florida.
Popular Florida-based news portals have claimed that the Citizens Property Insurance Corporation (CPIC) could be the last resort for the homeowners. A surplus lines insurer such as CPIC is unregulated by the state, and can pay out claims for those who haven’t been able to receive their shares from their concerned insurers.
However, this comes with greater risk. If the surplus lines go into receivership, the homeowners waiting for their claims won’t get paid. Not only this, but with insurers holding more policies, they can fall into risks, even with a $6.5 billion surplus. There is no immediate solution to this. Florida-based insureds can only wait for the result of the sessions going on.
III recommends that Florida-based homeowners perform an insurance checkup before the hurricane season is in full swing. You should check if your insurance policy is enough to cover the inflated cost of repairs and labor in the property market.
Not only this, but you should also take relatively minuscule measures that are often overlooked. For example, you can trim away growing vegetation near your area to reduce the risks of property damage and prepare an emergency plan. Besides this, you must actively keep your insurance documents and photographs of the inventory at your property safe.
