Florida Homeowners Insurance Crisis

Florida Homeowner's Insurance Crisis Solutions

The Democrat Solutions

On June 24, 2006 I went to Tampa Bay's Gay Pride celebration which is a couple of blocks from my house to ask some of the many Democratic Party candidates there for their take on the Florida homeowners insurance crisis.

Bill Heller

Bill Heller who is running for District 52 believes that hurricane insurance should be available and affordable. More competition and a state-run private insurance pool make up part of the answer.

Rick Kriseman

Rick Kriseman who is running for District 53 has recently become a another reluctant Citizens policy holder. On his web site he states, "Affordable housing will cease to exist if we do not address the sky-rocketing property insurance costs."

Charlie Justice

Charlie Justice is running for Florida Senate this year.

Republican Solutions

There were no Republican candidates there at the Gay Pride parade (surprise, surprise) so there was not much in the way of outreach there, but there was a lonely guy from the Log Cabin Republicans. His booth was not very popular.

Here is a note from one of our correspondents:

Also, about a month ago, there was an article on insurance (or maybe an editorial) that mentioned a proposal to have private insurers insure up to $100k per property (or some figure like that) and then have the state have a company that worked almost as a reinsurer to cover damages about the $100k per property.  Insurance companies aren't writing because they need/want to limit their liability.  This proposition would do that and, because most insurance claims are under $100k (I'd check on that -- I think I just made it up) or whatever the limit is, the state-sponsored reinsurer would have a certain limited liability too.

Insurance Cooperatives

Insurance Cooperatives are prohibited by Florida law. This is where a group of homeowners form a captive insurance company to insure themselves. As the Insurance Commissioner tend to protect the interests of the existing insurance companies, then this is unlikely to change. The relevant Florida law can be found at Florida Statute 626.973 Fictitious groups, where offering insurance to someone based on their membership of a fictitious group is prohibited.

Insurance from Coldwell Banker

The realty company Coldwell Banker offers Homeowner's insurance to buyers through NRT.