Florida Approves Citizens Property Insurance Hikes

Florida regulators are signing off on rate hikes for hundreds of thousands of Citizens customers.

The Office of Insurance Regulation announced Monday that it has approved an overall statewide rate hike of 6.3 percent for Citizens Property Insurance Corp. Citizens is the state’s largest property insurer with 1.22 million policyholders.

The final approve hike is slightly smaller than what Citizens officials requested. The hikes would take effect in January and February 2014.

Citizens customers who live along the coast and have wind-only coverage for their homes will pay an average of 10.5 percent more. Other homeowners who don’t live close to the coast could see their rates only go up 4.4 percent more.

State law caps most of Citizens rates so they cannot go up more than 10 percent yearly.