Florida Last-Resort Insurer Finds Unjustified Mitigation Discounts

NU Online News Service – The Florida property insurer of last resort said inspections of the homes and commercial properties it insures have uncovered some unjustified mitigation discounts. The state-run Citizens Property Insurance Corp. is expecting to net more than $101 million by the end of 2012 after policies are adjusted. A report on the inspections given to Citizens’ underwriting committee in December reveals that as of Nov. 19, some 6,775 personal lines inspections have been processed at a cost of $819,115. The net impact of these inspections is a $3.4 million gain. The average change per policy was $623.60, with the largest increase being more than $63,000. The largest decrease was about $5,500. More than 70 percent of homeowners saw a change in their premiums, with 64 percent seeing an increase and 8 percent getting a decrease, according to the report. Nearly 1,850 saw no change.

Counting commercial lines policies, 7,213 total policies were inspected. More than 52 percent of commercial l policies were increases, with 8 percent getting a decrease.

Citizens is planning to spend about $41.4 million over the next two years inspecting 44,220 policies. About 16 percent have been fully processed by underwriters.