The Florida House of Representatives has passed and sent to the Senate several key property insurance reform measures as legislators prepare to wrap up this year's session Friday.

The lawmakers approved $920 million of sales tax revenues for homeowner rate relief that will help fund the state's insurer of last resort, the deficit-ridden Citizens Property Insurance Corp.

In addition, several rate deregulatory measures were approved that include a 5 percent statewide flex band rating system.

Also approved was a mechanism to lower the funding threshold so that smaller insurance companies could have access to the Florida Catastrophe Fund.

William Stander, Tallahassee-based assistant vice president for the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America, said the measures are needed to promote market stability because “reinsurance prices have spiked in some areas and in some cases it [the coverage] is unavailable.”

Mr. Stander said many of the measures face possible revision as they move to the Senate for the session that ends Friday.

While both houses are Republican, he noted the “trial bar has been more successful in spreading its influence in the Senate.”

He feels some of the rate regulation measures that the insurance industry favors could be watered down in the Senate, just as the flex band was to a 5 percent statewide rise or 10 percent in any given territory. “You can't get much lower than 5 percent,” he said.

For rate hikes or decreases within that range, insurers would not have to receive Office of Insurance Regulation approval.

The state takeover of three companies within the Tampa-based Poe Financial Group putting nearly 300,000 policyholders' coverage in question was on the minds of the legislators, although Mr. Stander said none of the legislation on the table–including a possible capital infusion plan now under discussion–was aimed at the three troubled carriers.

After last year's record catastrophe losses, big writers such as Allstate and Nationwide have moved to reduce their windstorm exposure, creating concern for a coverage crunch as the 2006 hurricane season approaches.

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Florida House Okays Property Insurance Bills

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