August 23, 2006
Citizens Rate Hike Turned Down
An appeal by Citizens Property Insurance Corporation to hike insurance rates in Monroe County in Florida has been turned down by the Insurance Commissioner of Florida. Rubbing salt in the wound already inflicted, Kevin McCarty also ordered the state insurer to reduce rates for homeowners in the area.
Citizens, by virtue of being a state-run unit, is allowed to charge higher rates than private outfits. But with the lack of competition in Monroe County, the Commissioner did not see it necessary to justify the rate increase. The insurance agency had asked to raise rates by 25.9 percent for homeowners’ policies; instead it found the tables turned on itself with the Office of Insurance Regulation ordering it to reduce rates by as much as 32.2 percent. Mobile home owners will also benefit from a reduction by 15.2 in their policies, according to a decree from Commissioner McCarty.
Citizens has been asked to refund the excess amounts it has already collected in anticipation of the hike approval. McCarty said that the revised rates issued to the insurer were based on data derived from Florida’s public hurricane model.
Citizens’ management was in the firing line of questions thrown at them from members of the Office of Insurance Regulation and the advocacy group Fair Insurance Rates for Monroe County, and representatives of Monroe County, at a televised public hearing held on August 1 to discuss the rate filing.
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