Last week, a day before actuaries with Citizens Property Insurance Corporation were to go before a hostile crowd in Tampa regarding their prodigious proposed rate hikes, which averaged around 440 percent on sinkhole coverage, the insurer of last resort in Florida announced they would "only" seek rate increases of 50 percent.
But the state's Office of Insurance Regulation wouldn't even grant them that, announcing last night that they would allow Citizens' to raise their rates to a maximum of 32.8 percent.
Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty said that though more "credible data and study is required, these established rates will start Citizens on the path of having a sound rate for their sinkhole risk."
The radically reduced rate hike is a big win for homeowners in Pasco, Hernando and Hillsborough Counties, the epicenters of where sinkholes take place in the state of Florida.
This article appears in Sep 15-21, 2011.