- Another insurer, United Property & Casualty Insurance Company, will exit the Florida market, as well as Texas and Louisiana, all states that are prone to hurricanes.
- The company said obtaining reinsurance led to their decision to exit the market
- Homeowners will be forced to shop elsewhere when their policies come up for renewal
- State officials say recent measures put in place to shore up the market require time to make an impact
TALLAHASSEE — United Property & Casualty Insurance Co. will exit Florida’s troubled homeowners’ insurance market, forcing customers to find new coverage as their policies come up for renewal, the insurer’s parent company announced Thursday.
The St. Petersburg-based United Insurance Holdings Corp. said it has filed plans to withdraw from what are known as personal-lines markets in Florida, Texas and Louisiana. It also will file a withdrawal plan in New York.
A news release from the parent company said the plans would “effectively place United P&C into an orderly run-off,” which means policies will be gradually dropped as they come up for renewal. The announcement pointed, in part, to problems in obtaining reinsurance, which is critical backup coverage to help handle such things as hurricane claims.
The parent company said in July that it had started a “review of its strategic and capital raising alternatives” amid financial losses. The Demotech financial-rating agency later downgraded United Property & Casualty from an “A Exceptional” rating to a “M Moderate” rating.
The news release Thursday said Demotech has notified United Property & Casualty that it will withdraw the insurer’s rating. Rating withdrawals have been precursors to some insurers being declared insolvent and placed into receivership.
Thursday’s announcement did not say how many customers in Florida and the other states would be affected. But a United Insurance Holdings investor presentation in May cited about 185,000 Florida policies as of March 31.
United Property & Casualty is the latest insurer to leave the Florida market or dramatically scale back coverage amid losses. As indications of the troubles, five property insurers have been deemed insolvent since February, and the state-backed Citizens Property Insurance Corp. has ballooned to more than 1 million policies as many homeowners have few other coverage alternatives.
“As we have said numerous times before, there is no overnight fix to this insurance crisis. It’s been years in the making, unfortunately,” Altmaier told Cabinet members and Gov. Ron DeSantis. “But the steps we have taken so far under your leadership are going to be significant steps forward into addressing this issue.”
In addition to difficulties obtaining reinsurance, property insurers have blamed large numbers of lawsuits in Florida for financial problems. Florida, Louisiana and Texas also are prone to getting battered by costly hurricanes.
“Extreme weather, coupled with runaway litigation, is the reason for this announcement,” insurance lobbyist and former regulator Lisa Miller said Thursday of the United Property & Casualty decision.
After the initial Demotech downgrade of United Property & Casualty, the state Office of Insurance Regulation on Aug. 2 put the company into a new stopgap program aimed at making sure coverage would continue for homeowners.
The program involves Citizens Property Insurance acting as a financial backstop for private insurers that get downgraded. Citizens took on a reinsurance role to help make sure claims get paid if insurers go insolvent.
Financial ratings are important, in part, because mortgage-industry giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac require homes to be insured by financially sound companies. For insurers rated by Demotech, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac require “A” ratings or better.
The Demotech downgrade of United Property & Casualty put the insurer below an A rating. The state’s stopgap program is designed to satisfy Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in such situations. It uses an exception in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac standards that applies when reinsurers take responsibility for paying claims if insurers go belly up.
A local insurance broker told me that at least some companies say they won’t insure houses over 10 years old. How can our insurance commissioner allow companies to issue Any insurance if they just cherry-pick the ones with the least probability of having a claim?
They didn’t mind taking my money all these years–year after year after year. This year they DOUBLED the premium. God forbid they should have to pay out! The poor stockholders. This is why subsistence and survival should not be privatized.