‘We may be people with no insurance;’ Residents barely staying afloat in sinking Florida market

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — The crumbling insurance market in Florida continues to get worse by the day.

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Today, AAA decided it won’t be renewing some of its policies. This comes after Famers Insurance announced Tuesday they’re pulling out of Florida.

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“At some point, if it keeps going up at this rate, we may be[come] older people with no insurance,” Donald Stanton, a Ponte Vedra Beach neighbor, told Action News Jax.

Stanton is retired and worried with his fixed income. He says he will no longer be able to afford the rising rates. He also says he doesn’t know if he can survive without insurance.

Having lived in his Ponte Vedra Beach home for more than 23 years, Stanton currently has AAA’s combo policy covering his house and auto.

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“And the homeowners is the biggest ordeal,” Stanton said. “It’s up 55 percent from last year. Last year’s went up 23 and a half percent from the year before.”

AAA released a statement saying it’s issuing “some non-renewals” to a small percentage of its customers. It says in part, “last year’s catastrophic hurricane season contributed to an unprecedented rise in reinsurance rates, making it more costly for insurance companies to operate.”

Matt Carlucci Jr. is the owner of Brightway Insurance Agency in Jacksonville. He says demand is high, but the supply is low.

“I mean, everybody right now is trying to find a better rate, or just find a policy because they’re being dropped,” Carlucci said. “So, you know, our phones are ringing off the hook.”

Carlucci says dozens of carriers have gone out of business, and another dozen have not renewed a portion of their clients.

Related Story: Farmers Insurance Florida withdrawal: What it means for the state and impacted policyholders

Carlucci says insurance companies dropping customers has happened before. And he encourages people to remain calm. He says Florida House Bill 837, which took effect in March, should help. Some of the changes include carriers not having to pay as much legal fees if they get sued, and requiring claims to be made within two years.

“It’s going to become easier for insurance companies if they need to properly deny a claim to be able to do it without having to pay four to six times as much in legal fees to do so,” Carlucci said.

Carlucci is hopeful that insurers will return to the sunshine state soon.

“We believe that in the next year or so, a lot of companies are actually going to come back into the market,” Carlucci said. “We think that rates are gonna go down.”

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Carlucci says a non-renewal or a drop is better than a company going out of business. When a company non-renews, you have 120 days to find a new policy. But if they go out of business, you only have 30 days.