DAVIE, Fla. – The storm clouds over Florida’s home insurance market continue to grow ever darker.
Three more companies have now been approved by the Florida insurance commission to drop more than 50,000 customers, some in a matter of weeks.
In the next 45 days, Universal Insurance Company of North America will drop more than 13,000 customers and Gulfstream Property and Casualty will cancel over 20,000 policies.
Southern Fidelity Insurance Company was approved to non-renew nearly 20,000 homeowner policies over the next 14 months.
“There are already some insurance companies that have declared bankruptcy. They’re already out of the business here in Florida, some of them have been canceling the policies, some of them are not renewing, some of them are just leaving the state,” said Mauricio Giraldo of Horizons Insurance and Financial Services in Davie.
Giraldo said excessive litigation and high attorney costs are creating massive losses and pushing up the cost of re-insurance, which is the backing companies need to stay in business.
Legislation targeting the state’s insurance market crisis is awaiting the governor’s signature but experts say it only provides a Band-Aid to the bigger problem.