In a March press release issued by the Florida Senate, legislation aimed at reducing property insurance costs in Florida passed and included:

• 1-year insurance premium tax relief on flood policies written between 10/1/24 and 9/30/25.
• $176 million award to the newly re-established My Safe Florida Home Program, which will be used to help fulfill the backlog of 17,617 hurricane mitigation grant applications pending. (Funding goes into affect 7/1/24.)
• $25M appropriated for the My Safe Florida Condominium Pilot Program, providing hurricane mitigation inspections and improvement grants to eligible condo associations.
• Increasing consumer protection by prohibiting insurers from cancelling policies during a pending claim.
• Updating roofing policies to ensure there is a clear understanding between homeowners and insurance companies about clear expectations for roof repair and replacement coverage/costs.
• Protection for homeowners from being canceled when a roof is less than 15 years old, or when an inspection shows an older roof still has plenty of useable life left.
• An increase in Insurer transparency requiring carriers to notify policyholders that they have the right to request a copy of detailed loss estimates, denial or partial denial reasoning by carrier-hired adjusters within seven days.

While there are still many other insurance-related Bills pending review, approval and implementation on the floors of our State Capitol, these are just a few of the recently-passed items that will ultimately have a positive effect on Florida’s challenging home insurance marketplace.

As always, we’ll continue to keep you posted through our blogs, newsletters and social media posts as new legislation goes into affect moving forward!