Allstate’s Florida subsidiaries are nonrenewing some 33,000 condominium unit policies over the next several months, delivering another blow for beleaguered condo owners across the state.
The Palm Beach Post reported that Castle Key Indemnity and Castle Key Insurance have begun notifying policyholders and agents that they are again trimming their books of business in the Sunshine State, this time by 12% overall.
The move comes 18 months after the Castle Key companies said they planned to nonrenew about 33,000 other condo policies in the state, and two months after the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation approved a 53.5% use-and-file rate increase for Castle Key Indemnity HO-6 condo owners policies.
That affected 67,700 policyholders. The carrier blamed spiking reinsurance costs and hurricane losses for that rate increase.
“We now know the price for…Coverage A was too low for the amount of coverage we were selling,” Castle Key’s chief actuary, Samantha Steiner, said at a rate hearing in February. “This was not known at the time of opening the book of business but was quickly discovered after seeing rapid growth.”
The latest nonrenewal move could be felt as another squeeze on Florida condominium owners, which have seen other carriers non-renew, raise premiums, or require more inspection and safety data in the wake of the 2021 collapse of the Champlain Towers South near Miami Beach. The late-night collapse killed 98 people and led to significant legislative reforms, requiring more frequent inspections and more repair funding to be reserved by condominium associations.
Condominium association fees also have soared as some buildings face extensive upgrade and insurance costs, prompting thousands of owners to put their units up for sale in what has quickly become a crowded market.
At a news conference last week, Gov. Ron DeSantis said he is open to considering a special session of the Legislature, aimed at tweaking the 2022 law that required more inspections and funding reserves for condo associations.
“If the Legislature has ideas about how to make this more sensible for people, I’m totally open to all that,” DeSantis told reporters on Thursday, according to the Tallahassee Democrat and other news outlets.
Legislative leaders were mulling ideas late last week, news outlets reported.
Topics Florida
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