Florida’s property insurance crisis continues with no end in sight

Florida’s property insurance crisis just went from terrible to disastrous, according to some insurers.

Companies may not have what they need to get through hurricane season which means more can lose their coverage.

“We have the potential of a massive failure of Florida insurers, probably the worst on record, not only in Florida. But in US insurance history, we may see something we’ve never seen before,” said Mark Friedlander with the Insurance Information Institute.

Last week, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a law that gave companies $2 billion in reinsurance.

That’s insurance for the insurance companies.

But Friedlander said it isn’t enough.

“It needed to be at least double the amount of the funds that were allocated for reinsurance coverage for hurricane season,” Friedlander said.

The agency Demotech rates most of Florida’s insurers.

President Joe Petrelli said Florida’s market is dealing with a storm of its own.

“For the legislature to say well we’ll give you $2 billion in the reinsurance to assist policyholders layer we’ll take it out of general fund if we need it … It’s not enough and it’s basically an admission that we can’t get the reinsurance back,” Petrelli said.

Not having enough reinsurance means your homeowner’s insurance company could lose their A rating, costing you more or leading to your policy getting canceled.

“It’s like a deck of cards failing one after another could fail if they begin to get downgraded,” Friedlander said.

One bad storm could mean every Floridian could pay big.

“We’ve gone from a two-alarm fire at special session to a five-alarm fire today,” Friedlander said.