Home insurance groups continue to drop Florida policies

TAMPA, Fla. — Home insurance rates are skyrocketing while insurance companies are leaving the state.

FedNat is the latest insurance group to cancel more than 68,000 residential home insurance policies in Florida.

They’re the ninth property insurance company to recently drop tens of thousands of Florida policies.

“The Florida private insurance market is the most volatile in the U.S. right now,” Insurance Information Institute’s Mark Friedlander said.

Friedlander said roofing scams and lawsuits are to blame.

He said while other states have less than 1,000 lawsuits filed against insurance companies per year, Florida had more than 100,000 in 2021, most of them roofing scams.

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“Companies can’t continue to operate with losses at that level,” Friedlander said.

And the loss of insurers is leaving homeowners paying an increase of 30% to 40% for insurance and sometimes more.

“We’re seeing many homeowners get renewal bills at 50%, even 100%, so much higher than the 30-40 percent which will be their average,” Friedlander said.

Political analyst Susan MacManus explained why leaders are calling an emergency legislative session next week to address the issue.

“This session is very critical because we’re nearing another hurricane season and the projection is that we’re going to have plenty, and homeowners are finding it increasingly difficult to get insurance and be able to afford it,” MacManus said.

MacManus said with elections coming up, it’s important for lawmakers to do something to get this problem under control. Meanwhile, Friedlander said he’s hopeful for change, but it could be a year or years before we see a difference.

“We’re on a trajectory right now to have more lawsuits filed in 2022 than we did last year, and we had 100,000 last year,” said Friedlander. “So, we already have many of these roof schemes in the pipeline, that it’s going to take a while to get that pipeline under control.”