Citizens Property Insurance Company made the news again in Homeowners with Citizens Upset Over Mandatory Flood Insurance in Non-flood Zones. The news report noted: 

“The requirement came out of the Florida legislature’s second special session of 2022 after Hurricane Ian. 

Senate Bill 2-A requires every residential policy to have flood insurance as a condition of having coverage from Citizens, but they’re implementing it in phases. 

For those in a FEMA-designated flood zone, new policies had to get flood insurance by April 1 and any policy renewals have until July 1, 2023. 

For those not in flood zones, it depends on your property value: 

  • January 1, 2024, for property valued at $600,000 or more. 
  • January 1, 2025, for property valued at $$500,000 or more. 
  • January 1, 2026, for property valued at $400,000 or more. 
  • January 1, 2027, for all other personal lines residential property insured by Citizens. 

We went to Citizens to ask why they need homeowners in non-flood zones to have flood coverage. 

‘Following Hurricane Ian, you saw what happened in Orlando. So many people, even in the hardest hit areas, were not in flood zones and did not have flood insurance,’ answered Citizens Spokesperson Christine Ashburn.

….

‘I believe the public policy correlation there is if you’re going to be insured to the insurer of last resort in Florida, where our rates are subsidized, right? And we can assess all Floridians if we run out of money; we want to be sure people are covered in the event there was a flood in their home, so we don’t have a wind versus flood argument with Citizens because of our government entity status.’

Paying for needless insurance which will never be collected upon is the stupidest public policy I have ever heard of. As I read the bill, condominium unit owners insured by Citizens on the 23rd floor of a condominium will be required to purchase flood insurance because their elected politicians passed a law forcing them to so do. 

The laws passed by Florida’s political leaders in the special legislative session and in the current Florida session have done nothing for policyholders. Many of these laws are stupid public policy. 

Thought For The Day 

Public policy is a study in imperfection. It involves imperfect people, with imperfect information, facing deeply imperfect choices – so it’s not surprising that they’re getting imperfect results.

—Jake Sullivan