Rick Scott's Plan to Cut Citizens Insurance Imperils Homeowners

COMMENTARY | Florida Gov. Rick Scott has announced plans to downsize Citizens Insurance. Citizens is the state-funded, last-stop property insurance for Florida residents and business owners who can't get property insurance through private carriers. The majority of carriers no longer insure Florida property due to weather and sink hole risks.

If Citizens' state-funding is downsized through proposed bills like HB4081 and HB4181, it could crash.

Scott says he wants to invite more private carriers. My response: been there, tried that.

According to Insurance Journal.com, more than 1.2 million Floridians are insured through Citizens. My husband and I are among them.

We are Citizens' homeowner clients because we're among the Florida citizens who have had homeowners' insurance canceled "at random" by other companies due to past weather disasters that didn't even affect our area of the state.

We've lived in our Tampa house since 1986. It's a solid foundation, single-family inland home. It isn't in a flood zone or hurricane evacuation zone. The last time a catastrophic hurricane hit Tampa was 1921.

Our home has never suffered a tornado, lightning strike or other natural disaster.

But Hurricane Andrew brutally hit south Florida, four to five hours away from us, as a Category 5 storm in 1998. Major insurance companies paid out on claims for years. In 2004, hurricanes Charlie, Frances and Jeanne all made close calls to Tampa, but caused no damage in our area. Shortly thereafter, sink hole claims increased.

Consequently, our homeowners' insurance was canceled "at random" by the name-brand company we'd been paying since buying our home. Eighteen years of monthly payments, and then canceled "at random."

In 2006, our new name-brand carrier did the same thing. They got frightened after hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005 -- neither of which came close to us.

Meanwhile, some guy sitting in Evacuation Zone "A" across the bay probably still has one of those carriers because he wasn't canceled "at random."

We applied to other companies, but upon seeing we'd been canceled twice, they didn't listen to any explanation -- they just rejected our applications. We were forced to resort to Florida's Citizens Insurance.

To make matters worse, even if Gov. Scott doesn't downsize Citizens, our mortgage ends in a couple of years and Citizens is only required to carry homes that owe mortgages to protect the banks' interests. We may not qualify for Citizens once we own our home outright. We could lose everything if a disaster eventually strikes.

My suggestions to government officials:

In 2006, I sent my concerns and the following suggestions to Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty, who is still the commissioner today, and sent copies to then-Gov. Jeb Bush and 2006 gubernatorial candidates Charlie Crist and Jim Davis.

I received form letters thanking me for my concerns, and "rest assured" that issues like these were being addressed. Now, five years later, no similar measurements have yet been regulated.

This week, I am re-sending these suggestions to Gov. Scott and Commissioner McCarty:

A. Regarding companies who sell car insurance, boat insurance and life insurance in Florida, but refuse to sell property insurance:

* If an insurance company provides property insurance in other states, the company must do so in Florida in order to bring its other insurance business here.

B. Regarding natural disasters and owning homes outright:

* Prohibit insurance companies from randomly canceling clients on the basis of "possible" danger.

* Homeowners with inland zip codes, not in danger-labeled zones with no history of disasters, cannot be canceled at random or get random rate hikes.

* People who have paid years worth of monthly installments without making claims must be respected and given first consideration for continuation of insurance.

* Insurance companies will not be allowed to cancel a home just because the lien to a mortgage holder is fulfilled.

Florida residents at risk for losing last-option Citizens Insurance can contact:

Gov. Rick Scott, email
Florida State Capitol
400 S. Monroe St.
Tallahassee, FL 32399
Phone (850) 488-7146

Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty
200 East Gaines St.
Tallahassee, FL 32399
Phone (850) 413-3140

Sheryl Young has been freelance writing for newspapers, magazines, organizations and websites since 1997. Her specialties are American politics, education, society and religion. Credits include Community Columnist for the Tampa Tribune Newspaper, Interview Columnist with Light & Life Magazine, and a National First Place "Roaring Lambs" Writing Award from the Amy Foundation.