The state’s property market is edging on crisis and has been bleeding insurers in recent years.
Florida property owners are about to have an additional choice of coverage from four new home insurance companies that have just received their approval to sell in the state from the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR).
The state has been in desperate need of new players in its property coverage market.
The most recent home insurance companies to enter the state were Orion180 Select Insurance Company and Orion180 Insurance Company. Shortly before they received their approval, Mainsail Insurance Company and Tailrow Insurance Company also got the nod.
This is seen as the start of a promising trend in the state where options for many property owners have been few and far between. In fact, they have been moving in droves to the insurer of last resort in Florida, the state-backed Citizens. That company has become bloated with policies, providing coverage to far more customers than it was designed to assist.
With the new home insurance companies in the state, options for property owners will open up.
“OIR has been diligently working to attract more companies, jobs, and capital to Florida’s insurance market since the passage of recent legislative reforms,” said state Commissioner Michael Yaworsky. “Today’s announcement is another sign that the (legislative) reforms are having a positive impact on Florida’s insurance market. We look forward to continuing this momentum and giving consumers more options in the market for homeowners insurance.”
The two newest entrants to the Florida property market are based in Indiana and applied for permission to operate in Florida through the use of an expansion application. According to media reports, the two new companies in Florida have issued over 80,000 policies, with $150 million in written premiums last year.
This announcement follows on the heels of another from the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation, which gave Citizens thirty days to revise and update its request for an average home insurance rate increase of 12 percent to policyholders in the state. Current estimates of the average premiums for property owners in Florida is $6,000 per year. This is a 42 percent increase over last year.
