Danny Perez, speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, said Florida’s recent insurance reforms are helping stabilize the market and moderate rates, while additional efforts on affordability continue.
“Property insurance to my community, is the number one issue,” said Perez, House Speaker. “We have more carriers moving into the State of Florida than we ever had before. We have less policy under Citizen’s than we’ve ever had before. we’re trending in the right direction.”
Florida’s property insurance reforms were expedited through special sessions and subsequent legislation in 2022–2023. These measures aim to reduce costs driven by lawsuits, strengthen the market, and reinforce Citizens Property Insurance Corporation as an insurer of last resort. State guidance summarizing these changes highlights reforms across claims processes, reinsurance mechanisms, and consumer-focused mitigation efforts. Lawmakers argue that these changes will take time to fully reflect in pricing.
According to Florida’s Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR), there has been “overall market stabilization” following the 2022–2023 reforms. The OIR noted that rate filings for 2024 indicated a slight downward trend for the first time in years. The update also reported ten companies filing 0% increases, at least eight filing decreases pending approval, approximately 7.45 million residential policies in force, and about 389,000 policies removed from Citizens Property Insurance Corporation from January 2023 through March 2024.
The OIR also documented litigation cost pressures driving these reforms: Florida accounted for 14.9% of U.S. homeowners’ claims but represented 70.8% of the nation’s litigation in 2022. Insurers paid approximately $2.9 billion in defense and containment costs that year. The same update described Citizens improving financially with a net income of $746 million in 2023 compared to a $2.2 billion loss in 2022, alongside policy-count reductions tied to depopulation activity.
Perez is a Republican attorney representing Florida House District 116 and serving as Speaker of the Florida House from 2024 to 2026. The Florida House of Representatives is the lower chamber of Florida’s Legislature, responsible for drafting and passing state laws and budgets.
