JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Three Florida property insurance companies have either announced a reduction in their rates or the desire to pass some relief on to homeowners.
Insurance experts call this move a glimmer of hope in an otherwise troubled insurance market in Florida.
The reductions in property insurance premiums don’t equate to a whole lot of money, but they could mean a step in the right direction.
Bridget Shearn talked about how much she pays right now for property insurance; in a house she’s owned for the past 26 years.
″It’s huge, 4,000 is a lot of money, it’s not like I have a huge house,” Shearn said. “It went up $1,000 from last year, and from that year, it went up like $2,000.”
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News4JAX spoke with Cooper Nightingale, who said his premium skyrocketed steadily from 2019 to the present.
“When I first moved in my house I was paying, $1,600 a year, and now it’s like $5,000,” Nightingale said.
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Nightingale said his premium consistently jumped 15 to 20% each year. But now, there’s some potentially good news on the horizon for Florida homeowners.
The following three companies have either reduced their rates or are seeking a rate reduction from the Office of Insurance Regulation:
- Florida Peninsula Insurance announced a 2% average reduction in property insurance for the more than 122,000 residential policies it insures, for new policies and renewals, starting in July.
- Slide Insurance Company is seeking a 0.5% decrease in the average rate it charges to insure single-family homes.
- Florida Family Insurance Company is also seeking a 0.5% decrease in premiums for owners of houses, condominium units and rentals.
There’s also encouraging news from the state-backed insurance company Citizens, which posted a net income of $746 million last year, compared to a $2.2 billion loss in 2022.
Citizens has also successfully used depopulation to decrease its policy count – that’s where customers are shifted to private insurance. They’ve gone from 1.4 million customers in Sept. 2023, to 1.17 million by the end of February.
The homeowners News4JAX spoke with on Monday just learned about what could be positive news. However, they remained skeptical because they hadn’t seen any relief on their premium yet.
“I don’t think so, that would be great, that would be wonderful,” Nightingale said.
Nightingale said he’d have to see it to believe it.
Fraudulent lawsuits were also a big reason for the property insurance crisis, but the reforms in the legislation last year seem to be working.
According to S&P’s global report, the spending on legal defense costs by Florida Insurance fell by approximately 4%.
Florida still leads the nation in the number of litigated property insurance claims. But there appears some headway in this direction as well.