- Citizens helps those who can’t get home insurance anywhere else.
- Supposed to be a more affordable option.
- Basic coverage with very little wiggle room.
- Outrageous premiums are possible.
- A lot of complaints about claims process.
- Difficult to qualify for.
Citizens Property Insurance is a nonprofit, government insurance company that insures Florida homeowners who are unable to find private-market coverage. Citizens is committed to providing affordable homeowners insurance to Floridians in need and protecting their property from the state’s deadly weather.
Since they’re so committed to reaching out to harder-to-insure individuals, there are certain stipulations a person must meet in order to qualify for Citizens insurance.
First, you must have been denied coverage by at least one other Floridian home insurance company. We’ve done a couple of reviews on some of these, like Olympus. Also, you must have qualified for home insurance with a Floridian insurer for 20% more than an offer from Citizens.
Essentially, Citizens is the last-stop resort for those who have a hard time getting insurance for the right price, if at all. As a result, Citizens holds the 2nd place spot in the list of the 25 largest insurance companies in the state of Florida.
Being a giant in this industry can either be a great thing, or an obstacle for homeowners. When it comes to Citizens, how sure can you be that you are getting the right coverage for the right price? We’ll be going over some of the best and worst parts about Citizens home insurance.
Citizens homeowners insurance premiums
Citizens Insurance doesn’t have an online quote tool, unfortunately. To get a home insurance quote, you’ll have to go through one of their agents.
Since one of the ways to qualify for homeowners insurance is to show that another insurance company quoted you at least 20% more than the Citizens premium, homeowners insurance rates from this provider should be below average. On average, Florida homeowners pay about $2000 per year for a policy with 250,000 worth of dwelling coverage.
When you try to get a good idea of their prices through customer reviews, it’s still not clear what end of the spectrum Citizens is on. One person with a very old house in Florida states their home insurance was a mere $800 a year, which is incredible. It’s fair to assume this person might have just had a “Wind Only” policy offered by Citizens, but we can’t be too sure.
Crazy expensive quotes are possible with Citizens for some locations. One person states in their online review that their home insurance premium went as high as $14,000. A person in West Key says they were paying as much as $17,000 a year for a house less than 1,000 square feet.
It’s true that some Floridian homeowners are now paying the highest premiums in the country, especially after Hurricane Ian in 2022. But to pay several thousand dollars more for the only home insurance solution almost seems criminal.
Citizens homeowners insurance coverages
In December 2022, the Florida legislature has passed Senate Bill 2-A to reform Citizens insurance program. Part of this reform is that homeowners getting Citizens home insurance will be obligated to get flood insurance coverage as well. This requirement will be rolled out in stages.
Citizens has a few brochures available on their site explaining the available coverage. Several of these contain different information about the services they offer. Citizens makes it clear that a standard homeowner’s insurance policy covers the basics.
Standard HO-3 home insurance policy
From dwelling coverage to medical payments and every coverage in between, Citizens has you protected. Coverages A-F are all offered as a part of their common HO-3 site-built homeowners policy.
Other add-ons to this policy at no extra charge include:
- Debris Removal
- Reasonable Repairs
- Trees, Shrubs, and Other Plants
- Fire Department Service Charge
- Property Removed
- Credit Cards, Fund Transfer Cards, Forgery, and Counterfeit Money
- Loss Assessment
- Catastrophic Ground Coverage Collapse
- Glass or Safety Glazing Material
- Landlord’s Furnishings
- Fungi, Wet or Dry Rot, Yeast, or Bacteria
- Ordinance or Law
Citizens also offers a collection of additional optional coverages. Sinkhole Loss is one of them. This endorsement is used to protect you from the cost of damage caused by ground subsidence. This is different from Catastrophic Ground Coverage Collapse, which the law defines differently.
Other optional coverages include your typical limit increase endorsements. These can add a bigger dollar amount to your personal property replacement cost or law coverage.
Modified HO-8 home insurance policy for older homes
Another homeowner’s policy offered by Citizens is the Modified Homeowners, or HO-8. HO-8 offers limited coverage for 11 perils. It excludes many types of losses, like those that are water related.
Full replacement cost coverage is not available with an HO-8 policy. Claim payments are typically made for the actual cash value of your dwelling and property. This can result in significantly lower claims payouts and can be particularly problematic in the case of a sentimental or monetary loss.
HO-8 policies may not meet the minimum insurance requirements of many mortgage holders, either. If you have a mortgage on your home, you might want to make sure your lender is ok with an HO-8 policy for your home.
HO-6 Policy (For Condo Unit Owners)
The HO-6 policy is for condominium unit owners, which make up a significant portion of the Florida population. This policy covers the interior of the condo unit, the personal belongings of the insured person as well as additional expenses/liabilities. It does not, however, cover the exterior of the building.
MHO-3/MW-3 Policy (For Mobile Homeowners)
Citizens offers 2 policy options for mobile homeowners, and the MHO-3 provides coverage for the entire mobile home, other structures if it’s located on a single piece of land permanently, and the owner’s personal belongings including liability. The coverage plan is similar to standard HO-3 insurance.
Dwelling fire policies for rental properties
Dwelling fire policies, most notably DP-3, DP-2, and DP-1 cater to tenant-occupied properties and are meant to be purchased by landlords. These policies cover all damages to the dwelling, other structures located on the property, personal property, and loss of rent.
Commercial Policies
Citizens Property offers few commercial options in order to cater to business owners, homeowner associations, and real estate investors.
The commercial plans offer coverage for the following:
- Apartment buildings
- Condo associations
- Retirement homes
- Homeowner associations (including buildings they own)
Most commercial plans are multi-peril (offers protection against 12 perils) but some wind-only options are available too.
Citizens home insurance discounts
One thing Citizens considered was the inclusion of discounts for their policies. With such a massive number of active policies right now, you’d hope that Citizens would give back to its namesake.
Many Citizens’ discounts are used as incentives to get homeowners to be more aware of the condition of their homes. One example of this is their wind mitigation discount. With this discount, homeowners are offered a percentage off their premium if they:
- Have shutters that protect windows and doors from windborne objects.
- Have specialized wind-resistant windows.
- Have a hip roof.
This discount is not included for mobile homes, though.
Other safety-conscious discounts include:
- Fire Alarm Systems discount provides a discount for homeowners with centrally monitored systems. This could be with or without a sprinkler system for an eligible discount.
- Roof Construction discount provides a discount for homeowners with special roofing requirements. These improvements could be roof-deck attachments, or laying FBC clay roof tiles, for example.
- 2001 FBC discount provides a discount for homeowners whose houses were built on or after January 1st, 2002. Homes built before this time will need to have an updated roof to qualify for this discount.
Some of these discounts might require an inspection. As always, Citizens tells us to contact their agent to get to the bottom of specific policies, coverage, premiums, and qualifying discounts.
While it’s nice that Citizens offers coupons, these sorts of incentives are relatively common. Considering the massive rates that they’ve been caught with, these discounts seem to come up short.
Citizens home insurance claims
Of the 800+ complaints received in 2021, claims handling was the most common grievance for customers. In fact, over 75% of overall complaints were solely about claims. The majority of these were state-specific issues, which likely point to hurricanes and wind claims.
Many verified customers continue to be unsatisfied with Citizens’ handling of their claims following Hurricane Irma. Other luckier customers have noted only filing one claim over several years and not having any issues.
We considered the massive number of customers they have and certain danger zones for terrible weather. All their written reviews are mostly 50/50 about their claims process.
To file a claim with Citizens, they make it plain and simple. You can report your claim by computer or mobile device through a self-service policy account. You can also use this account to check your policy documents, claims, and billing information.
You can also call their claims hotline, at 866-411-2742. This line is 24/7 and you only need to know your policy number and a few other pieces of common information to get the ball rolling.
Citizens customer satisfaction
Being in the #2 spot for the busiest home insurer in the state of Florida, Citizens shares nearly 4% of total market complaints for homeowner’s insurance in 2022. The National Complaint Index is set at 1 automatically, and Citizens stands firmly at 2.23. This is more than the average amount of gripes about this company.
When you deal with Florida homeowners, you know you can’t please everyone. Testimonies are riddled with one-star reviews and various choice words.
Again, we considered the fact that Citizens is a very large company. We could still find more 5-star reviews for Citizen than we could for some other Floridian insurance companies.
That said, their customer satisfaction isn’t necessarily non-existent. Actually, several customers rave about how Citizens was always there, and how their positive experiences trumped everything else.
Citizens financial strength
Even though Citizens is booming with policies, AM Best does not have them rated for financial strength. Demotech doesn’t have them on their radar either.
The BBB doesn’t consider Citizens as an accredited business either. The BBB does, however, grade Citizens with a solid “B”. They’ve had 45 complaints closed in the last 3 years, and 34 complaints closed in the last 12 months.
On the other hand, Weiss’s ratings have given Citizens an astounding A+ rating for Insurance Safety. This means, according to Weiss, Citizens offers excellent financial security. Weiss believes Citizens has the resources necessary to deal with severe economic conditions.
This decision was made based on Citizens:
- Strong long-term capitalization index based on excellent current risk-adjusted capital consistently maintained in previous years.
- Superior liquidity with ample operational cash flow and liquid investments.
- History of adequate reserve strength as reserves have been consistently at an acceptable level.
- Good overall results on stability tests.
- Fair profitability index with operating losses during 2017 and 2018.
- Significant trends in critical asset, liability, income, or expense items.
Final Thoughts
It’s nice to have something to lean on when you’re denied everywhere else. A last resort is a resort, nonetheless. Still, when it comes to Citizens, there’s nothing much to brag about.
Citizens has a basic policy coverage with much room for improvement. The good news is you might qualify for one of their few discount programs.
If you must file a claim, let’s hope you get stuck with an adjuster who works with you to create a positive experience. Otherwise, you might be another angry customer taking to the internet to receive fair service.
