SARASOTA, Fla. (SNN TV) — If you have home insurance through Farmers, there’s a possibility they won’t renew your policy in 2024.
Last summer, Farmers Insurance announced it was not going to renew around 30 percent of its total business in Florida. This move would affect about 100,000 customers in the state. This will begin February 2024, depending on your renewal date.
However, if you’re one of the customers not being renewed by Farmers, that doesn’t mean you’re not being renewed at all. Another insurance company is taking up those policies.
“Slide [Insurance] approached Farmers after this announcement and proposed they’d be willing to take on these policies with what’s called a guaranteed renewal,” said Mark Friedlander, the Florida spokesman for the Insurance Information Institute.
This means if you have home insurance through Farmers and they don’t renew you, you’ll get a 120-day written notice. Slide will offer you a renewal quote but be warned: Slide has admitted that quote has a pricey downside.
“Mostly likely, their rate will be higher than the current Farmers pricing,” Friedlander said.
And it may be dramatically higher.
“Say it’s double the price. ‘Wow, I have to really pay that? I have no choice?’ No, you do have choice,” he assured.
Friedlander said one choice customers have is Citizens, the state’s insurance of last resort. Based on new reforms by the Florida legislature, if a private quote is within 20 percent of your Citizens quote, you must take the private quote.
For example, if your Citizens quote was $3,000 and your private quote was $3,500, you couldn’t take the Citizens quote. But if Citizens offered you $3,000 and the lowest private quote you found was $4,000, then you could stick with Citizens since private insurance in that example was more than 20 percent higher.
The second choice you have is private insurance, which may give you better luck than recent years.
“The good news is five new companies are going to be writing in the state Florida in 2024. They’ve been approved by the state insurance regulator,” Friedlander said.
He explains that reforms by the state legislature have made Florida look more profitable for insurance companies, meaning more choices for Floridians. But if you’re looking for price relief in Florida, that likely won’t come in 2024.
Why? Florida’s insurance market has been volatile for years, combined with roofing scams, landfalls from Hurricanes Ian and Idalia, higher reinsurance costs, and supply chain issues, among other factors affecting the state’s market.
“I know customers are looking for relief. But unfortunately, it’s going to take several years to clean up that mess,” said Friedlander.
There are around 14,000 Farmers customers being dropped who have auto, rental, and umbrella coverage. Slide will not offer a renewal quote to them because they don’t offer quotes in those areas.