Insurance Rates

Options for Florida Homeowners

Rate Increases

What Is Impacting Rates?

Factors Affecting Home Insurance Premiums

Rate increases aren’t always a result of something you did or didn’t do. Home insurance rates can be impacted by many different factors. Let’s take look at a few examples.

Bad Actors

Most attorneys, contractors, and public adjusters are not bad actors, but there are bad apples out there. Our state is seeing a significant increase in fraudulent claims and unethical practices by bad actors who manufacture claims and lawsuits to fill their own pockets. In many cases, they are taking advantage of unsuspecting homeowners. In some cases, homeowners are complicit.

Insurance fraud takes a heavy toll and drives rates up for everyone. You may have heard on the news how large of an issue this has become over the last few years. Because of this, all homeowners and insurance companies are affected. In our Q&A below, we explain what insurance fraud is and what we’re doing to combat it.

Bad Weather

Increased hurricane and storm activity is driving up the cost of reinsurance rates. Reinsurance is required insurance by insurance companies to help protect us—and you. As a result of major weather events, Florida insurance companies are seeing rate increases for their insurance premiums, too. If you’d like to learn more about reinsurance, visit our Financial Stability page.

Age or Condition of Home & Roof

Over time, discounts for newer homes and newer roofs decrease as they age. The change can cause an increase in premium. If you have an older home (30+ years), visit the Older Home Insurance page to explore coverage options for older homes and roofs.

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FAQs

Common Questions About Rising Insurance Rates

What is insurance fraud?

Insurance fraud can take many forms. Generally speaking, it’s deliberately committing an act of deception for the purpose of financial gain.

How do contractors commit fraud?

Fraudulent contractors solicit homeowners into filing a claim, which is against the law. As just one example, a common tactic they use is to go door-to-door after a storm, sometimes years after a storm, to convince homeowners to file a claim even when there hasn’t been any damage.

These contractors offer incentives, such as large insurance payouts, gift cards, or to waive deductibles—which is also illegal. They will have you sign an Assignment of Benefits contract that legally transfers the insurance rights of your claim to them, often resulting in homeowners being left in the dark while contractors pad their pockets.

If you would like to learn more about how to avoid becoming a victim of contractor fraud, visit the MyFloridaCFO website to read an article from the Office of the Insurance Consumer Advocate.

How do policyholders commit fraud?

Policyholders can commit insurance fraud even if they aren’t completely aware. Many times, they are following an attorney’s or public adjuster’s guidance. Inflating the value of a claim by claiming that a loss was due to something that’s not covered on your policy or when it was due to normal wear and tear, are both examples of insurance fraud.

Committing fraud to receive a larger settlement by providing false, misleading, or incomplete claim information is a crime that can result in felony charges, whether it was done by the policyholder or a third party acting on behalf of the policyholder.

If I file a claim will you raise my rates or cancel the policy?

A hurricane is an “Act of God,” so your specific policy’s premium will not increase as a result of your claim nor will it be canceled because you filed a hurricane claim.

I haven’t had a claim, why not charge me less, and those who filed claims more?

We understand it’s frustrating to be affected by the factors we’ve discussed on this page. We do not have the flexibility to change how we rate individual policies in this way. Florida law requires premium changes to be approved by the state and then applied to all policies.

We are required to pass along the increased costs of fraudulent or inflated claims to all of our customers, not just ones that have filed claims. Currently, Florida insurance companies don’t have the option to lower rates statewide because industry losses are far too high due to the major increase in insurance fraud and the unethical practices of law firms and contractors engaged in fraudulent activities.

However, sometimes there are opportunities to lower your premium, such as discounts or coverage changes. Please contact us if you would like to review your policy.

Do you want to increase my premium?

No. We’d rather keep premium low and our customers happy. The rising cost of insurance statewide has been a challenge for everyone, homeowners and insurance companies alike. Florida law requires homeowner’s insurance companies to pass along the costs associated with fraudulent or inflated claims to customers.

What are you doing about fraudulent practices in the industry?

We are educating legislators on cases of fraud that have caused public harm, and we are working on proposed legislation that provides greater protection to Floridians; current law incentivizes filing unwarranted lawsuits.