Citizens Property Insurance Is Bumping Rates In 2018

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TALLAHASSEE (CBSMiami/AP) — Most home and business owners who have insurance with state-created Citizen Property Insurance are in for a rate hike next year.

The degree to which the rates for multi-peril coverage will increase — or in some areas go down — depends on where the property is located. Some of the most populated areas like Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach will see average increases topping 10 percent.

The Florida Keys, the area hit hardest by Hurricane Irma, will not see a rate increase.

Also because of Irma, the increase will be pushed back three months to May 1st. The state Office of Insurance Regulation was supposed to approve Citizen Property Insurance Corporation's rate request in September but delayed the decision after the state was slammed by Irma, the first major hurricane to hit Florida since 2005.

Citizens was created by state legislators to act as the state's insurer of last resort when Floridians cannot get coverage from private companies. Many of the corporations' customers live along the coast or in South Florida.

Statewide, commercial property owners will see an average multi-peril increase of 8.1 percent. Mobile homeowners will see an average increase of 3.9 percent for multi-peril coverage.

The rates set were nearly identical or slightly lower than what Citizens requested before Irma.

Irma caused $1.2 billion dollars in losses for Citizens, which expects about 70,000 claims from the storms, though the corporation had enough in reserves to cover the cost and has more than $6 billion available for future storms.

(© Copyright 2017 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)