Citizens Property Insurance: Florida insurer of last resort

What Citizens is, and why its size keeps changing

Citizens Property Insurance Corporation is Florida's insurer of last resort, a government nonprofit entity created by the Florida Legislature in 2002 under Florida Statutes section 627.351(6). It exists to provide property coverage to owners who cannot find it in the private market, which in a state repeatedly hit by hurricanes is a large and shifting population. It is governed by a nine-member Board of Governors, appointed by the Governor, the Senate President, the House Speaker, and the Chief Financial Officer, with its operations audited by the state and offices in Tallahassee and Jacksonville. For a Canadian owner, the practical meaning is that Citizens is a public backstop, not a private insurer chasing your business, and that distinction shapes everything from its pricing to the assessments discussed below.

Its size is the number that tells the story of the Florida market. Citizens swells when private insurers retreat and shrinks when they return. It peaked at roughly 1.42 million policies in October 2023, at the height of the state's insurance crisis, then fell sharply as legislative reforms drew private capital back. By the end of 2025 it had dropped to around 385,000 policies, a decline of about 73 percent and its lowest level on record, leaving it the third-largest insurer in the state behind Universal and State Farm Florida. An older figure of "more than a million policies" is no longer accurate, and a Canadian reading a dated source should treat the policy count as a moving target tied to the health of the private market.

Private market or Citizens: the comparison that matters

A Canadian owner choosing coverage is really weighing two different propositions, and the differences are not the ones a Canadian intuition expects. The private market prices and competes; Citizens is a capped, eligibility-gated backstop whose policyholders carry a tail risk that does not exist in Canada, the deficit assessment. There is no clean Canadian analogue, because Canadian home insurance has no mechanism by which a shortfall at one insurer is recovered through surcharges on every policyholder in the province. That single difference, more than price, is what a Canadian needs to understand before treating Citizens as simply the cheap option.

The three product lines

Citizens organizes its coverage into three lines, and which one applies depends on where the property sits and what it is. Personal Lines, the policies most Canadian condo and home owners encounter, include the HO-3 homeowner form, the HO-6 condo-unit form, and the DP-3 dwelling form, and they are multi-peril, covering fire, theft, wind, water from plumbing, and the usual range of risks, available statewide outside the wind-only zones. The Wind-only line covers wind and hail only, and applies in the High Risk Account areas such as the Keys and certain barrier islands, where the rest of the perils are insured separately. The Commercial-residential line covers multi-peril risks on residential buildings of four or more units.

For a typical Canadian snowbird who owns a condo, the relevant form is usually the HO-6, and whether the property falls in a wind-only zone is the first thing to confirm, because it changes how the coverage is assembled and priced.

Coverage caps

Citizens does not write unlimited coverage, and the ceiling is a hard one. Outside Miami-Dade and Monroe counties, the maximum insured replacement value is 700,000 USD. In Miami-Dade and Monroe, the cap rises to 1,000,000 USD. If your Florida home is worth more than the applicable cap, Citizens cannot cover the full replacement value, and you need an excess or surplus-lines policy layered on top to close the gap.

For most condo owners the cap is not binding, since an HO-6 insures the unit and its contents rather than the whole building. For an owner of a higher-value single-family home, the cap is a real planning constraint that a Florida-licensed broker should price out before relying on Citizens.

2026 rates, the glide path, and the non-primary cap

Citizens premiums are governed by a statutory ceiling on how fast they can rise, known as the glide path. Under Florida Statutes section 627.351(6)(n), the annual increase for a primary residence is capped, and that cap reached its final tier of 15 percent per year on January 1, 2026. Senate Bill 76 modified rather than established the glide path, and the 15 percent ceiling is the top of that schedule for primary homes.

For 2026, the direction of rates actually reversed for the first time in years, but the figure is a recommendation rather than a settled number. Citizens recommended an average personal-lines decrease of 2.6 percent, its first since 2015, effective June 1, 2026; the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation sets the final rates after a public hearing and signaled it may grant a larger reduction. Until the OIR acts, the percentage should be read as a proposal, not a guaranteed outcome.

The detail that matters most to a snowbird is that the 15 percent glide path applies to primary residences. A non-primary residence, meaning a home occupied nine months a year or less, which is exactly the snowbird's condo, is not protected by the 15 percent cap. Under Senate Bill 2-A, non-primary residences are subject to a cap of 0 to 50 percent: if rates are decreasing, the non-primary rate is left unchanged, and if rates are increasing, the non-primary owner can face an increase of up to 50 percent. A Canadian who assumes the 15 percent ceiling protects their winter condo is reading the wrong line of the statute.

Deficit assessments: the Florida-only tail risk

The feature with no Canadian equivalent is the deficit assessment. If Citizens records a deficit after a major hurricane season, Florida Statutes section 627.351(6)(b) authorizes a series of assessments to make up the shortfall, and they reach beyond Citizens own policyholders. Citizens policyholders are tapped first, through a policyholder surcharge of up to 15 percent. A regular assessment of up to 2 percent of annual premium can then be levied on most Florida property policyholders, private market included, and an emergency assessment of up to 10 percent per year, for as long as 30 years, can follow if the deficit persists. Stacked, these can reach up to 25 percent of annual premium on Florida insureds.

There is a related cost a Canadian should know about. The Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund applies a rapid cash build-up factor of 25 percent, and that charge is passed to the policyholder outside the glide path cap, meaning it is not constrained by the 15 percent ceiling. Citizens last imposed assessments after the 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons, and growth in the catastrophe fund has avoided a major assessment since 2015, but the mechanism remains live and is part of the true cost of insuring in Florida.

What this means for a Canadian snowbird

Citizens accepts Canadian non-resident owners without a special surcharge, so a Canadian can hold a Citizens policy on a Florida condo or home. The practical cautions are specific. A home left vacant for more than thirty days can run into vacancy conditions that affect coverage, which matters for a snowbird whose property sits empty for months, so the vacancy terms of the policy need to be checked rather than assumed. Citizens claims handling is widely regarded as slower than the private-market average, and for a large hurricane claim some owners engage a Florida-licensed public adjuster, typically for a fee in the range of 10 to 15 percent of the settlement, to move the file along. Communications are in English only, so a Canadian who is not comfortable handling an insurance claim in English should line up a bilingual property manager or a Florida attorney in advance.

Above all, the snowbird should remember the non-primary cap. Because a winter condo is a non-primary residence, it sits under the 0 to 50 percent rule rather than the 15 percent glide path, which means a rising-rate year can hit a Canadian owner far harder than it hits a Florida neighbour in a primary home. That asymmetry, combined with the assessment tail, is the real reason to treat Citizens as a considered choice rather than a default.

Worked example: a snowbird condo at USD 500,000

Take a Canadian snowbird who owns a Florida condo with a 500,000 USD replacement value, occupied as a non-primary residence for the winter months, insured under an HO-6 with Citizens. The coverage cap is not a problem here, because the 500,000 USD value sits below the 700,000 USD limit that applies outside Miami-Dade and Monroe, and an HO-6 insures the unit rather than the whole building in any case. The exposure that does matter is the rate cap. As a non-primary residence the condo is governed by the 0 to 50 percent rule under Senate Bill 2-A, not the 15 percent glide path, so in a year of rising rates the premium could climb by far more than a primary-home owner would experience.

Layer on the assessment risk. If a severe season pushes Citizens into deficit, this owner, as a Citizens policyholder, faces the policyholder surcharge first, and could see assessments stacking toward 25 percent of annual premium, plus the catastrophe fund build-up charge that sits outside the glide path cap entirely. None of this is a reason to avoid Citizens, but it shows why the headline premium understates the true potential cost, and why a Florida-licensed broker should compare a private quote before the owner settles on the last-resort option.

Common mistakes

The errors Canadians make with Citizens come from importing Canadian assumptions into a very different system.

The first is believing Citizens is simply the cheapest option. Its premium is held below full market rate by statute, but eligibility is restricted precisely so it does not undercut private insurers, and its policyholders carry assessment risk that a Canadian has never seen. The second is ignoring the deficit assessment entirely, treating the quoted premium as the whole cost when a bad season can add up to 25 percent through assessments, some of which reach even private-market policyholders. The third is misreading the rate cap: assuming the 15 percent glide path protects a winter condo, when a non-primary residence sits under the 0 to 50 percent rule and can be raised far more. The fourth is confusing wind-only coverage with multi-peril, and assuming a single Citizens policy covers everything when a property in a High Risk Account area may need wind-only from Citizens and the remaining perils elsewhere. The fifth is ignoring the depopulation, or take-out, process, by which a private insurer offers to assume a Citizens policy, an offer that can change a Canadian owner's coverage and that should be evaluated rather than reflexively declined or accepted.

Checklist: evaluating a Citizens policy as a Canadian owner

1. Confirm you are eligible: no comparable private offer, or a private premium more than 20 percent above Citizens.
2. Identify your product line: HO-6 for a condo, and check whether the property sits in a wind-only High Risk Account zone.
3. Check the coverage cap against your replacement value: 700,000 USD generally, 1,000,000 USD in Miami-Dade and Monroe.
4. Recognize that your winter condo is a non-primary residence, capped at 0 to 50 percent, not 15 percent.
5. Budget for assessment risk of up to 25 percent of annual premium after a deficit, plus the catastrophe-fund charge.
6. Review the vacancy conditions for a property left empty for months.
7. Get a private-market quote for comparison before defaulting to Citizens.
8. Arrange English-language claims support, or a bilingual manager, in advance.

FAQ

Is Citizens the cheapest way to insure my Florida condo?

Often it looks that way, but it is designed not to be a bargain. Its premium is capped below full market rate by statute, and eligibility is restricted so it does not undercut private insurers. Its policyholders also carry deficit-assessment risk that private-market owners largely avoid, so the headline premium understates the potential cost.

Will the 2026 rate decrease apply to my winter condo?

Not necessarily, and not as a settled number. The 2.6 percent average decrease is a Board of Governors recommendation for personal lines, effective June 1, 2026, and the Office of Insurance Regulation sets the final figure. More importantly, your winter condo is a non-primary residence, governed by the 0 to 50 percent rule, so a statewide decrease may leave your specific rate unchanged.

What is a deficit assessment, and could it reach me?

It is a surcharge levied to cover a Citizens shortfall after a severe hurricane season. As a Citizens policyholder you are tapped first, up to 15 percent, and stacked assessments can reach up to 25 percent of annual premium. Some tiers reach Florida private-market policyholders as well, which is why it has no real Canadian equivalent.

Does Citizens cover a Canadian non-resident owner?

Yes, without a special non-resident surcharge. The cautions are practical rather than categorical: vacancy conditions for a property left empty for months, slower claims handling, and English-only communication. Plan for those rather than assume them away.

My condo is worth more than the cap. What happens?

Citizens insures up to 700,000 USD outside Miami-Dade and Monroe, and up to 1,000,000 USD in those counties. If your replacement value is higher, Citizens cannot cover the full amount and you need an excess or surplus-lines policy on top. A Florida-licensed broker should structure that layering.

Official forms and reference pages

• F.S. §627.351(6), Citizens Property Insurance Corporation
• Citizens, Eligibility & Coverage info
• Citizens, 2026 Rate Kit