Florida insurance regulator sets 2022 rates for Citizens Property Insurance

And following a review of the complete record and feedback, the OIR has finally established rates for Citizens’ Coastal Account (CA), Commercial Lines Account (CLA), and Personal Lines Account (PLA). A release said that the effective date for new and renewal rates is September 01, 2022.

The rates are as follows:

Overall Estimated Statewide Average Rates Changes – PLA & CA

Overall Estimated Statewide Average Rates Changes – CLA & CA

The OIR-approved rates come as a new report by the Insurance Information Institute (Triple-I) investigated the problematic homeowners’ insurance market in Florida, which the institute believes is due to rampant fraudulent roof repair schemes and excessive insurance litigation. Those issues have forced insurance companies to either charge significantly higher rates or drop renewal for policies in the state, forcing many homeowners to switch to Citizens, it was observed.

Read more: Revealed – what’s tearing apart Florida’s homeowners’ insurance market?

The number of policyholders with Citizens is beginning to dangerously swell, the report found. Triple-I noted that the insurer’s policy count in Florida rose to nearly 900,000 this month.

Read more: State-backed Citizens Property Insurance hit by surge in lawsuits

Citizens’ growing policyholder count is also beginning to take its toll on the state-backed insurer. In a report for the claims committee of its board of governors, the company said that for the first four months of 2022, it was served 3,881 lawsuits. Citizens averaged 970 lawsuits a month for the first four months of 2022 – 11.5% more than the average of 870 lawsuits a month for the same period in 2021.