Just a week after Gov. Ron DeSantis said he would call lawmakers back to Capitol Hill in April to resolve the redistricting disputes, the senator. Jeff Brandes calls for a second special session to pass a law on property insurance.
St. John’s Insurance was declared insolvent in February by the Florida Department of Financial Services and will soon be in liquidation, bringing the number of property insurance companies in Florida to seven since 2014.
“The private property insurance market in Florida has collapsed, and it is evident that we need to call a special session to deal with this dire situation,” Brandes said in a letter to the President of the Senate. wilton simpson and Speaker of the House Chris Sprows. “In the past 30 days, thousands of Floridians have seen their homeowners insurance companies leave Florida. Over 80,000 homeowners cannot find insurance outside of Citizens Property Insurance. With the 2022 hurricane season rapidly approaching and volatile market, the Legislature chose to leave homeowners exposed to a perfect storm of rising rates, limited coverage and shrinking options.
Last week, insurance regulators deliberated on a request made by state-backed insurance writer Citizens Property Insurance Corp. to raise rates by almost 11%. The demand comes as the number of policies proliferates as a growing number of insurance agencies have gone into liquidation or refuse to underwrite new policies in Florida.
“The special session is expected to address the short-term Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund to reduce rates, provide a funding mechanism that insurers can access if capital markets are not an option, and include significant reforms to life insurance. property to create a sustainable environment for Florida homeowners,” Brandes wrote. “In addition, the session is expected to address citizen property insurance reform, as citizens estimate the number of policies to increase by 6,000 policies per week and will soon exceed one million.”
Citizens Insurance, the state-backed property insurance agency intended to act as an option of last resort rather than being able to take on an influx of new policies, plans to have more than a million policies in by the end of this year.
Last week, Citizens had 801,341 fonts, up from 570,000 a year ago.
Simpson told reporters March 11 that the Senate had a “pretty good bill” on property insurance and that there was a chance lawmakers would be called back to Tallahassee because “we have a lot of bankrupt businesses “.
Those comments, however, were followed up by Simpson saying the few property insurance changes made in the 2021 session need time to sink in.
