Citizens

Amid the hurricane season, policies are not expected to start leaving Citizens until late October.

That would translate to the average price of homeowners multi-peril policies going from $3,560 to $4,041.

If the Board of Governors signs off on the proposal, the hikes also would need approval from the state Office of Insurance Regulation.

As of Friday, it had 1.18 million policies, according to its website.

Under current law, Citizens is barred from selling policies for homes with a “dwelling replacement cost” of $700,000 or more.

Citizens has grown during the past three years to become the state’s largest property insurer.

Citizens was created as an insurer of last resort but has grown during the past three years to become, by far, the largest property insurer in the state.

“If Citizens were unable to cover its losses, it is entirely possible that state leaders might ask the federal government for a bailout.”

Citizens this year asked the Office of Insurance Regulation for approval of an overall 13.3 percent rate increase.

Rate increases would vary by types of policy, but Citizens said in March that the hikes would average 14.2 percent this year.

The stack-backed insurance has more than doubled the amount of policies of the last two years.