If a carrier drops your Florida home, or you cannot find a private policy, Citizens is the backstop. It is worth understanding how it works, when you qualify, and why you may be moved off it later.
Citizens Property Insurance Corporation was created by the Florida Legislature to cover homes that cannot find coverage in the private market. It is a government entity, not a private company.
You generally qualify only if no comparable private policy is available, or if the private options are meaningfully more expensive than Citizens. If a private carrier is close on price, you are expected to take it.
Private carriers periodically assume batches of Citizens policies. If you get a takeout offer within the state's price threshold, you are usually required to move to that carrier.
Citizens is phasing in a rule that its policyholders also carry a separate flood policy, regardless of flood zone.
Citizens does not write homes above a set value in most counties, so higher value homes have to be placed elsewhere.
If Citizens exhausts its reserves after a severe season, it can levy assessments on most Florida policyholders, including people not insured by Citizens.
New carriers have entered Florida and several have been approved to take policies out of Citizens, so more homes now have a private option than a year or two ago.
A non-renewal notice comes with a deadline. The moment you have it, start shopping so there is no gap in coverage and no force placed policy from the lender.
If it was the roof age or an inspection finding, addressing it can reopen private options that were closed before.
A current wind mitigation report and, on an older home, a clean four point inspection widen the set of carriers that will look at the home.
Send the non-renewal notice, the address and your current declarations page. I will check the private market first and use Citizens only if nothing else fits.
Send the notice and the address. I will find you coverage before the deadline.