Florida moving 26,000 property insurance policies from Citizens to private insurers

State regulators have approved proposals by two property insurers to take as many as 26,000 policies from the state-backed Citizens Property Insurance Corp., Florida’s largest home insurer.

Insurance Commissioner Michael Yaworsky last week signed orders that would allow Slide Insurance Co. to take as many as 25,000 policies from Citizens starting in August and Loggerhead Reciprocal Interinsurance Exchange to take as many as 1,000 policies.

Citizens has seen explosive growth during the past two years as private insurers have dropped customers, raised rates and, in some cases, gone insolvent because of financial problems. Citizens had 1.3 million policies as of May 26.

Many state leaders have for several years sought to move policies from Citizens into the private market, in part because of financial risks if Florida is hit by major hurricanes.

Under a law passed in December, Citizens policyholders will be required to accept offers of coverage from private insurers if the offers are within 20% of the cost of Citizens’ annual premiums. Lawmakers approved that change because Citizens often charges less than private insurers.