A bill is moving through the Florida senate that would open the door to surplus lines carriers seeking to take out secondary, or vacation, homes covered by Citizens Property Insurance Corp.
The measure, S.B. 1716, received unanimous support from the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee.
A spokesman for Citizens said it also supports the bill.
According to the most recent legislative analysis, the bill authorizes surplus lines insurers to submit takeout offers to Citizens for secondary residences if the surplus lines insurer has at least an A (Excellent) Best’s Financial Strength Rating.
In addition, the surplus lines insurer’s personal lines residential risk program would have to be managed by a
Florida resident surplus lines broker, it said.
The bill also bill makes a secondary residence ineligible for Citizens coverage upon receiving an offer of coverage at any rate, and does not require that the offer provide coverage that is comparable to that provided by a Citizens policy, it said.
The surplus lines takeout offer plan must first be approved by the Office of Insurance Regulation, it said.
Increasing the pool of properties that could be taken out of Citizens’ control would add to efforts that have reduced Citizens’ policy count from 1.37 million in August to 1.16 million as of Jan. 26.
Between 45,000-60,000 of Citizens’ policies are for secondary homes, a representative said.
The bill makes a number of other administrative changes, including making statutory changes to facilitate the transition of Citizens from having three different accounts — personal lines, commercial and a coastal account —- to a structure where all Citizens policies are held in a single account Citizens account.
Homeowners Choice Property & Casualty Insurance Co. has successfully assumed nearly 54,000 policies from Citizens Property Insurance Corp. in Florida, the company said in a statement.
The top five writers of homeowners multiperil insurance in Florida in 2022, based on direct premiums written, were: Citizens Property Insurance Corp., with 15.62% market share; Universal Insurance Holdings Group, 10%; State Farm Group, 6.68%; Florida Peninsula Group, 4.53%; and Tower Hill Group, 4.44%, according to BestLink.