Cancellations drive some back to Citizens Insurance

As Citizens Insurance still tries to move more policies off its books to private insurance, some homeowners are ending up back with the insurer of last resort.

Close to 5,000 new policies were written by the end of the first week of May, according to Mark Friedlander of the Insurance Information Institute.

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"We’re seeing a creep now because there are still challenges in the market," Friedlander said.

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He said the small spike in policies is likely the result of a wave of non-renewal notices.

"A couple national insurers are in the process of not renewing significant amounts of policies across the state. I think that's what’s driving it to be honest."

Citizens, he said, is still holding a significant net loss of policies from its depopulation program, and is down about 300,000 policies from last October.

The latest number for Citizens statewide is 1.16 million policies as it tries to lower its exposure by moving policies to private insurers in takeout offers.

Citizens CEO Tim Cerio said they are watching the number of policies returning to Citizens.

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"I will tell you what we're tracking is maybe just slightly over 1% of the policies have come back in," Cerio said recently at an insurance roundtable in Clearwater.

"That's really good compared with other previous depop's, which shows the carriers are doing a better job than in many years past."

If you have a question or comment about homeowners insurance, email WPTV reporter Matt Sczesny at matt.sczesny@wptv.com