Rick Scott is trying to kill Citizen's Insurance

[beachmouse]

Florida Gov. Rick Scott secretly pushing to kill Citizens insurance | Gainesville.com

And the free market is saying that, no, they wouldn't pick up all the policies in question if Citizen's was folded. I can't say that I've ever heard anyone particularly like Citizen's, but they're kind of a necessary evil down here.

And you know, for all the talk from Scott about job creation, he seems to be totally oblivious that for a lot of people and businesses, insurance costs are actually far more of a burden than taxes are, and yet he seems bound and determined to do absolutely nothing to keep property insurance costs contained. And those out of control insurance costs could very well be playing a role in the businesses choosing to locate in central/non-coastal Alabama or Georgia instead of down here.

 

[30ashopper]

If and when it dies I will personally dance on it's grave. Of course private insurers won't cover some of the properties, they are uninsurable. So the liability gets dumped on taxpayers through Citizens. If we get hit by a massive storm, Citizens will bankrupt the state. It can't cover the loss on all these high risk properties it covers. At some point people are going to have to accept there are places in Florida you should not build.If you do decide to build in these areas, you have to be prepared to take a complete loss when your property inevitably gets hit by a major storm.

 

[30ashopper]

The concept troubled insurers, many of which rely on Citizens to take hurricane risk while they insure coastal homes against fire and other common perils. "The concern was whether there would be capacity in the market. In the end, all of us agreed, there wasn't," said one of the prime architects of the bill, Kyle Ulrich, vice president for legislative affairs at the Florida Association of Insurance Agents.

Citizen - providing welfare for the insurance industry since 2002.

 

[scooterbug44]

It is typically businesses that use Citizen's insurance, or is it mostly residential? Aside from a couple restaurants, my guess is that most of the buildings being built in these areas are lodging/homes.

 

[30ashopper]

I believe it's primarily homeowners. They have about 1.3 million policies, or about 1/3rd of the overall market. Note you subsidize the operation of Citizens when you pay your property insurance.

 

[scooterbug44]

I'd love to see more restrictions put on it - I find it ridiculous that people are building in locations so fraught with risk no private carrier will insure them and that we subsidize it.

You build a $7 million house, you should pay for your own damn insurance.

 

[beachmouse]

Citizen's isn't supposed to cover $7 million homes. I want to say their limit is well south of a million these days. And a lot of the homes they cover are nowhere near the coast; they're deemed to be risky simply for existing in the state of Florida.

 

[scooterbug44]

No, because one of the propositions being considered is capping it at $1 million and then gradually lowering in $250K increments of the value that they will cover.

Another caps Coastal at $2 million.

I was exaggerating with the 7, but multi-million dollar homes are currently covered by Citizens.

 

[beachmouse]

My error then. But what I do know for sure is that they do have many other properties nowhere near the coast that are otherwise considered to be uninsurable. Much grumbling on City-Data.com right now from the Sarasota area where people 12 miles inland and not near water have had their zip code effectively redlined/blacklisted and only Citizen's is willing to write them a policy to the tune of $3K a year for a 1400sf 1950s block house largely retrofitted to current code.

 

[scooterbug44]

Are they the sinkhole folks?