Citizens’ rates to go up in two counties
Citizens Property Insurance Corp. customers in Broward and Palm Beach counties will pay higher rates if the company’s Board of Governors approves Wednesday.
In Broward, 29,215 customers would see an average 9.6 percent increase — from $3,057 to $3,351.
In Palm Beach County, 10,907 policyholders would see a 4 percent average increase — from $2,901 to
$3,016.
It could have been worse.
The state-backed company’s latest proposals are a redo of rates approved in December, before lawmakers passed insurance reforms aimed at lowering costs blamed on abusive lawsuits and inflated insurance claims by repair contractors and plaintiffs
attorneys. The law included a requirement for Citizens to revise the new rates to reflect expected savings.
If not for the redo, Broward customers would have seen a 9.9 percent increase. Palm Beach County customers would have seen a 7 percent increase.
Miami-Dade’s 55,2798 customers will see their rates decreased by 3.5 percent if approved Wednesday. Their average premium would decline from $3,687 to $3,557. Without the new law, those policyholders faced a 9.4 percent hike that would have made their average premium $4,033.
Miami-Dade was singled out for the decrease because rates there had been raised by 26.3 percent over the past three years in reaction to increased costs, the company says.
Rates would be decreased for 49,574 of Citizens’ 250,483 personal lines policyholders statewide under the new proposal, compared with 7,887 under the previously approved rates.
Policies would cost less for 41,068 policyholders in Miami-Dade County, 1,053 in Broward County and 3,452 in Palm Beach County.
Under the revised proposal, the average statewide rate for all personal lines policies — homeowners, condominium owners and renters — would increase 4.7 percent compared with the previously approved 8.2 percent. The average statewide premium would increase from $2,627 to $2,687.