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Florida's home and condominium owners could see their annual property-insurance premiums cut by ... Insurance premiums to shrin

Florida's home and condominium owners could see their annual property-insurance premiums cut by 10 percent to more than 50 percent, depending on where they live and which insurer covers them, based on figures released Thursday by the state's Office of Insurance Regulation.

The projected savings are the result of changes the Legislature made to the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund during January's special session.

First, the state's projected savings are averages, meaning you may see bigger or smaller rate reductions when you renew your property policy. It depends on where you live, which company insures your home, and how much savings that company will see from buying state-backed reinsurance coverage compared with private reinsurance.

Second, if you have already renewed your policy this year, you won't see any discount until next year, when your policy renews again. The law requires the newly adjusted rates to apply to policies that renew on or after June 1.

The savings were made possible because private insurance companies are now able to get less-expensive reinsurance coverage -- which helps them pay claims after a hurricane -- from the state fund and are required by law to pass those savings to their customers.

Insurance companies must submit rate filings to the state by March 15 that reflect the catastrophe-fund savings, and will have to make rate adjustments effective for policies that renew on or after June 1.

On Thursday, state Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty released data that private insurers will use to determine the savings for their home, condo, rental, mobile-home and condo-association customers.

The state's figures show the difference between buying reinsurance from private companies and buying that coverage from the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund.

"It's very encouraging news," Gov. Charlie Crist said. "It looks like we're going to have some significant rate decreases occurring for the people of Florida. ¡K The good work that the Legislature did during the special session is already having a very positive impact."

Charollet and Don Forrest, snowbirds from Kentucky who winter in a Leesburg mobile-home park, now pay almost $800 a year for homeowner's insurance on their $50,000 unit. That's up from the $359 they paid when they first bought the home about 10 years ago.

"Every time that it was due -- every year -- it went up," Charollet Forrest said. In 2004, she said the premium was $429, rising to almost $600 after the hurricanes and then on to the $789 she pays now.

The couple have been dropped by various insurance companies through their years in Florida, although they have filed only one claim in that time, for about $1,200 damage after the 2004 hurricanes. Right after they filed the claim, they were dropped.

According to the figures released by the state Thursday, the new Florida law might save the Forrests only about 11ƒpercent, or $80, on their mobile-home policy.

"Big deal. I can go out to the Outback, and my husband and I can have dinner and an appetizer," Charollet Forrest said. "I think they [the Legislature] have to start somewhere."

Customers of Citizens Property Insurance Corp., Florida's largest home insurer, won't see any savings based on Thursday's announcement because the state-backed company doesn't buy private reinsurance.

"There's so many different little variables going on here," said Bob Hunter, director of insurance for the Consumer Federation of America, who helped the state come up with the savings factor for the state's policyholders.

If a major hurricane hits this year and wipes out the catastrophe fund, all Floridians will pay extra charges on their automobile and property policies to bail out the fund.

Laura Brost and Jason Garcia of the Sentinel staff contributed to this report. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel is a Tribune Publishing newspaper.

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admin – Fri, 2007 – 03 – 02 12:00