ORLANDO, Fla. – Thousands of Citizens Property Insurance customers have until the end of the day to decide if they want to take an offer from a private insurer.
Florida’s property insurer of last resort sent out letters to 304,000 policyholders in September, telling customers that they have an offer to switch to a private insurer. Those customers must respond by Tuesday, Oct. 10, or their policies will automatically default to the private insurance company, which may cost more money.
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It’s all part of a push by Citizens to reduce its customer load and its risk. Citizens has roughly 1.4 million customers, making it one of the largest property insurance companies in Florida, which is not the original intent of the state government-created company, and comes as many private insurers stopped writing policies in Florida.
Insurance experts say the growth in Citizens’ policies is unsustainable.
“They’re not supposed to be the only option,” Mark Friedlander with the Insurance Information Institute told News 6 last month. “What it does is create a risk exposure in Florida where Citizens, because they are so rate restricted compared to private companies, they are not bringing in enough rate for the risk they are writing. That means the rates are what we call not actuarily sound rates, and it puts all of Florida consumers in a position to potentially pay what would be labeled a hurricane tax.”
Last week, Florida insurance regulators signed off on allowing six private insurers to take another 150,000 policies from Citizens and make offers to those customers.
Policyholders who receive takeout letters can make a choice online at https://www.citizensfla.com/online-choice, or by contacting their agent listed on the takeout offer letter. Citizens is reaching out to agents and Citizens policyholders who received an offer but have yet to respond.
We want to hear from Citizens policyholders:
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