Welcome to

More than 6 hundred thousand homeowners will see their premiums with Citizens Insurance go down next year  under a plan the company presented to state regulators today. Ten percent is the maximum reduction the company is suggesting, but as Mike Vasilinda tells us, the state could order even bigger drops in some areas.

After six continuous years of Citizens Insurance rate increases, lower rates  for many customers are on the way. Statewide the decrease will be 5 point eight percent, but some will see ten percent reductions. CEO Barry Gilway called the decrease “historic”.

“At least in seventy percent of our customers will get a decrease. 95 percent of the territories, you know, are represented in that decrease” says Gilway.

Citizens presented the plan to regulators who must approve it.  By law, the company must charge sound rates.

“Individual consumers will see a rate increase in some areas” explained Citizens CFO John Rollins.  Which in this case, is bad news for condo owners.

“The rate indications for those wind only lines were generally in the teens” says Rollins.

Sinkhole policies will remain the same, except in Hernando county, where rates will go up ten percent.

And renters may not see as big a decrease as warranted by loss information.

Rate and loss data suggests renters should be getting a 16 percent decrease in their premiums. Citizens is only offering ten.

Regulators say they are looking at the renters rates and could order even bigger reductions. Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty says it all depends on how you look at the loss model. “If they had used a different model, if they had picked mid point of the model, etc., then potentially it would have been more of a decrease that was actually reflected in the filing.”

A decision on the whole package is due Thursday September 4th. New rates take effect on policies that renew after February first.

The Office of Insurance Regulation has the authority to change any reductions or increases based on their analysis of loss and premium data. By law, Citizens can’t raise any of its rates by more than ten percent a year.