Florida Homeowners Insurance Crisis

Homeowners Against Citizens Property Insurance

A group has been formed called Homeowners Against Citizens, also known as HAC, HACFL and H.A.C., and from December 2006, Having Affordable Coverage Florida.

Homeowners Against Citizens Logo

Here is a quote from the Homeowners Against Citizens web site: "H. A. C. Forida (sic), Inc., is a NON-PARTISAN, non-profit, grassroots organization of concerned people fighting against the skyrocketing insurance premiums in Florida." HAC formed in March, 2006 and their first action was a lobbying trip to Tallahassee.

HAC is lobbying for the people of Florida for more relief from the insurance crisis. It is the premiere grassroots insurance lobbying organization in the state.

Nicole Deg

I learned about HAC from seeing one of their members, Nicole Deg, on TV attempting to collar Florida Governor, Jeb Bush, when he visited the Tampa Bay area in June 2006. Apparently this very successful stunt was not looked upon favorably by every one in HAC. Maybe there are some big Bush supporters in Hudson and New Port Richey didn't like the idea of their governor being embarrassed. Especially when Nicole turned out to be a Democrat!

Homeowners Against Citizens board, with two exceptions, is exclusively from Pasco County. One director is from Tarpon Springs, which for those of you not in the know, is as far north in Pinellas County as you can get before crossing the line into Pasco. And another is from neighboring Hernando County.

Nicole then threw her hat into the ring to be a Democrat candidate for Pasco County Commissioner, and this again was regarded as perhaps a little too partisan for a non partisan group so she was definitely distanced from Homeowners Against Citizens for some time. She has now pulled out of that race. Looking at the Yahoo group that H.A.C. has, it looks like Nicole has been rightly or wrongly a subject of contention. Ginny Stevans, HAC President told me:

As for Nicole Deg. Nicole was the driving force of this group in the
beginning and thought she might have more ability to help people if she could get voted into the County Commissioners. It was solely her choice to distance herself from the group in respect to our non-partisan beliefs. Shortly after she started to run for office she dropped out for reasons I do not know. She then helped us plan a rally in October and in November gave birth to her second child. We have no problems with Nicole but were just trying to stop rumors outside of the group.

Why be Homeowners AGAINST Citizens?

Citizens Insurance Corporation is not the problem. The problem has been that the legislature and the executive has let the private insurers do what they please. They have also failed to realize the extent to which the rules under which they created Citizens Property Insurance Corporation are now penalizing the people of the state of Florida.

Those rules were intended to encourage private insurers to stay here by forcing Citizens to be non competitive, i.e. it has to charge the highest premiums. The private insurers have taken advantage of this and have raised their premiums and pushed Citizens' rates through the roof. The St Pete Times provides the quotation:

And for its part, Citizens maintains it is not the bad guy. By law, Citizens has to charge the state's highest rates to avoid competing with private insurers and truly remain the "last resort.''

Many may also feel themselves victimized personally by Citizens. Pasco County, which is almost exclusively where HAC board members come from, has been heavily hit by sinkhole claims.

HAC is now branding itself as Having Affordable Coverage Florida.

Next, Homeowners Against Citizens Internal Problems

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