Thanks to a bill Florida Governor Rick Scott signed into law late last week, homeowners will receive comprehensive details on all their potential insurance options from Citizens Property Insurance should they decide to voluntarily leave the state-run insurer for private carriers.
When Citizens initially announced its intent to depopulate, private carriers mailed their offers to Citizens’ customers—the letters were mostly mistaken as junk mail by confused policyholders. Citizens also prohibited multiple offers from private insurers, allowing one company of their choice per customer to present their offer.
With the new law in effect, Citizens will now take full responsibility for mailing their customers, informing them of all their possible carrier choices.
An article on the Tampa Bay Times noted that while the new law greatly benefits consumers, it omits a provision that could have made the law even more advantageous. State Sen. Anitere Flores, R-Miami, proposed a provision to allow homeowners a 36-month grace period to return to Citizens should their new insurer raise their rates significantly. According to Flores, some homeowners have reported experiencing 200% premium increases a year or two after switching from Citizens.
The provision was removed during the last days of the Legislative session in order to avoid a veto from Gov. Scott. The governor had vetoed a similar bill last year that would have allowed homeowners to return to Citizens, reasoning that the bill would have reversed the progress the state has made in trimming down the state-run insurer’s policies.
As of March, Citizens had less than 500,000 policies under its name. The insurer’s initial depopulation tactics, which included forcing private carriers to mail their offers, were widely panned. A number of consumers complained that they did not know they were being switched to private carriers, especially since they had mistaken the notice letters as junk mail. Many others noted that Citizens’ supposed “opt-out” form, which would have spared them from switching had they accomplished it, was particularly difficult to find.
