Dear Friend,
We wanted to share a really important property insurance update with you as quickly as possible.
Recently, our office has heard from constituents whose homeowner’s insurance may have been incorrectly dropped by Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, which is Florida’s state-backed insurance company.
The situations involve folks who have not yet been able to make repairs to homes damaged by Hurricanes Ian or Nicole in the fall of 2022. These homeowners haven’t been able to make repairs yet because their original private insurance company collapsed after the storms, and they are still waiting for their claims to be processed by the Florida Insurance Guaranty Association, or FIGA, which is the state entity that steps in to cover claims for failed insurers.
A damaged home is essentially uninsurable on the private market. But these homeowners were initially able to find coverage through Citizens, the state insurance company that exists to provide property insurance to Floridians who have nowhere else to turn.
However, our office recently learned that Citizens has been canceling or non-renewing some of these polices – which would leave these homeowners without any insurance at all.
This absolutely should not be happening. In fact, the Florida Legislature passed a bill during the 2023 legislation that specifically required Citizens to continue covering homeowners still waiting for FIGA to pay claims for at least two years. I was proud to vote for that legislation (Senate Bill 7052).
Upon hearing from these constituents, our office immediately contacted Citizens. And Citizens responded today, acknowledging that any non-renewals of this nature were made in error.
To fix this problem, Citizens told our office that it has begun contacting agents to identify homes with existing damage whose policies were not renewed by company. Citizens said that it will make new renewal offers to any with outstanding FIGA claims that should not have been dropped in the first place. If the homeowner accepts the renewal offer, there will be no lapse in coverage.
Citizens will also rescind any non-renewal notices that have been mistakenly issued on policies that have not yet lapsed.
If you believe your insurance policy was incorrectly canceled or non-renewed by Citizens, please contact my office and we will forward your information to Citizens immediately. Providing information such as the name on the policy, the property address, the policy number, your phone number, and your FIGA claim number will help us get your case resolved as quickly as possible.
And as always, please reach out to us and/or your State House Representative at any time with any other issues or challenges you may be running into with Florida government. We’re here to serve you and will continue to do whatever is in our authority to help Floridians navigate the property insurance crisis.
I also want to give a special thank you to the local insurance agent who first brought this issue to our attention. His advocacy helped us to better serve you.
Onward,
Rep. Anna V. Eskamani