PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — As of remaining week, 1.24 million Florida householders have the state’s “insurer of last resort,” Citizens Property Insurance. But now, some are apprehensive a couple of mandatory flood insurance requirement, even supposing they aren’t in flood zones.
A invoice out of remaining yr’s legislative particular consultation geared toward serving to curb the valuables insurance disaster calls for all Citizen’s residential insurance policies to even have flood insurance in levels beginning this month to January 1, 2027.
ABC Action News has won a number of messages from involved householders and insurance brokers, apprehensive concerning the further value of the brand new requirement for citizens in non-flood zones.
“I’m from St. Pete…right on the water, it’s beautiful, I would love to live on the water, but I specifically chose this area because it was a nonflood zone area,” expressed retired home-owner Mary Garst.
She moved again after operating for many years in Chicago to retire in her native land. She purchased a three-bedroom, two-bath house close to Interstate 275 and 54th Street in St. Petersburg.
In the six years she has owned the house, she has been with 3 other assets insurance corporations.
Garst stated she was once dropped from her first insurance corporate because of an older roof.
Her most up-to-date invoice with Security First went from $1,800 remaining yr to $3,900 this yr.
“I said that’s crazy,” Garst exclaimed.
In September, her insurance agent were given some quotes from other corporations.
“Edison was over $6,200, Florida Peninsula was $5,000, Citizens at that time was $2,300,” Garst stated as she confirmed ABC Action News the printout.
Mary Garst
She held off and ran the quotes once more in February of this yr and located they’d handiest larger.
“Edison was at $8,300, Florida Peninsula was $6,600, and then Citizens came in at $2,689,” she exclaimed.
Citizens was once all she may manage to pay for. Then her agent knowledgeable her she’ll quickly must get flood insurance as smartly.
“I said, ‘But I’m not in a flood zone. I’m on the crest of St. Petersburg; why do I have to get flood insurance?’”
That’s a query many Floridians are asking.
The requirement got here out of the Florida legislature’s 2nd particular consultation of 2022 after Hurricane Ian.
Senate Bill 2-A calls for each residential coverage to have flood insurance as a situation of getting protection from Citizens, however they’re enforcing it in levels.
For the ones in a FEMA-designated flood zone, new insurance policies needed to get flood insurance through April 1 and any coverage renewals have till July 1, 2023.
For the ones now not in flood zones, it depends upon your own home price:
- January 1, 2024, for assets valued at $600,000 or extra.
- January 1, 2025, for assets valued at $$500,000 or extra.
- January 1, 2026, for assets valued at $400,000 or extra.
- January 1, 2027, for all different private traces residential assets insured through Citizens.
We went to Citizens to invite why they want householders in non-flood zones to have flood protection.
“Following Hurricane Ian, you saw what happened in Orlando. So many people, even in the hardest hit areas, were not in flood zones and did not have flood insurance,” replied Citizens Spokesperson Christine Ashburn.
An analysis by CoreLogicafter Hurricane Ian confirmed uninsured flood loss from the hurricane value $10 to $16 billion in Florida.
For many typhoon sufferers, claims develop into extra sophisticated, involving mediation or even criminal motion with disputes of wind verse flood harm.
“I believe the public policy correlation there is if you’re going to be insured to the insurer of last resort in Florida, where our rates are subsidized, right? And we can assess all Floridians if we run out of money; we want to be sure people are covered in the event there was a flood in their home, so we don’t have a wind versus flood argument with Citizens because of our government entity status.”
Garst stated her lowest quotes for flood insurance had been between $400 and $500.
“I’m going from $1,800 up to $2,689, and the flood insurance would be an additional four to $500 on top of that,” she stated. “Thank God I have… a little leeway because of my IRAs, but I don’t know how anybody does it if they’re just on Social Security.”
Garst is the vice chairman of her community affiliation and stated it is the number 1 subject of shock for all of her neighbors.
“There are people here that are on fixed incomes, social security, and I don’t know how they’re going to pay to have their houses covered. However, if you own your house and have no mortgage, you don’t have to have homeowners insurance, so if anything does happen, you don’t have insurance, and there are people that are doing that,” Garst defined.
“This is one thing that our governor truly wishes to deal with and he has now not addressed it to stay the pricing down,” she concluded.
We reached out to Governor Ron DeSantis’ office to ask about the financial concerns of homeowners with Citizens who are not in flood zones.
A spokesperson for his office referred us to Florida’s Office of Insurance (OIR) regulation for an answer. We have not received a response from OIR.
You can find your flood zone on the FEMA website, but it may be easiest to go through your county website.
According to the Insurance Information Institute, private flood insurance is the most robust market in the U.S. A spokesperson said that there are nearly 50 private flood companies writing in Florida, that’s in addition to the government-backed National Flood Insurance Program.
Homeowners can visit FloodSensible.gov or the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation website for information about flood insurance and finding a flood insurance provider. There may be a waiting period to obtain flood insurance, according to Citizens.
Here is information from Citizen’s bulletin in:
All existing personal residential policies renewing on or after July 1, 2023 – that include wind coverage and are located in the special flood hazard area as defined by the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) – are required to have flood insurance.
Additionally, all impacted customers will be required to sign and submit a Policyholder Affirmation Regarding Flood Insurance (CIT FW01).
Coverage Requirements:
Under the brand new rule, an current policyholder situated in a different flood danger house and whose coverage contains wind protection is needed to safe flood protection from the NFIP or a non-public insurance service on the following limits:
- Dwellings: Equal to or more than Citizens’ separate Coverage A and Coverage C limits
- Condominium or unit house owners: Equal to or more than Citizens’ separate Coverage A and Coverage C limits
- Tenant contents: Equal to or more than Citizens’ Coverage C restrict
- Cooperative unit house owners: Equal to or more than Citizens’ Coverage C restrict
If the above limits don’t seem to be to be had from the NFIP, Citizens will settle for the utmost protection quantity for which the insured is eligible. Maximum NFIP limits:
- Regular Program: $250,000 Coverage A, $100,000 Coverage C
- Emergency Program: $35,000 Coverage A, $10,000 Coverage C