Citizens Property Insurance: what it is, takeouts, and leaving it

Citizens Property Insurance is Florida’s state-created insurer for people who can’t find home insurance in the private market. It’s a government entity, not a private company, and it’s designed to be a safety net rather than the first stop (Fla. Stat. 627.351).

Plenty of Florida homeowners have been on Citizens at some point, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But it works differently from a private policy, and the letters it sends are easy to misread. Here’s what to know.

How you get on Citizens

You can’t simply choose Citizens. For a primary home, Florida law says you’re not eligible if a private insurer offers you comparable coverage at a premium that’s not more than 20 percent higher than Citizens’ premium for comparable coverage (Fla. Stat. 627.351(6)). The same test applies at renewal, and a similar one applies to homes that aren’t your primary residence.

So the usual path is: your agent shops the private market first, and Citizens is where the home goes when nothing private fits within that rule.

Takeout letters

Citizens is meant to shrink when the private market can handle more homes. One way it does that is its depopulation program, better known as takeouts: private insurers approved by the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation offer to take over Citizens policies.

If your policy is selected, you’ll get a packet with the offer (or offers), an estimated premium, a coverage comparison and a deadline. Citizens also tells your agent.

Here’s what the letter really means:

• If any offer is within that 20 percent test, you’re not eligible to stay with Citizens for a primary home. You can still shop elsewhere; you just can’t keep Citizens.
• If every offer is more than 20 percent higher, you can choose to stay.
• If you do nothing, Citizens assigns your policy to the company that offered the lowest premium.
• Once it moves, it’s final. Citizens says there’s no longer a 30-day period to come back after the transfer.
• More offers can come. If you stay, you may get future offers, and you have to answer each one to remain.

You or your agent registers the choice, either online with the code on your offer form or by your agent submitting it for you.

Before you accept a takeout

A takeout is a real policy from a real company, but it’s not automatically the same coverage. Compare:

• The deductibles, especially the hurricane deductible.
• How claims are paid, including the roof. (Replacement cost vs actual cash value.)
• What’s excluded or limited that wasn’t before.
• The insurer itself. Every takeout company has to be approved by the state, but you can ask me what I know about how one handles service and claims.

Leaving Citizens on your own

You don’t have to wait for a takeout. If a private insurer will write your home, you can move whenever the new policy is ready. The steps are simple, but the order matters:

1. Get the new policy bound first, with a start date.
2. Then cancel Citizens for that same date, so there’s no gap.
3. Tell your mortgage company about the change.

The things that most often open private options are a newer roof, an updated wind mitigation form, and a clean 4-point inspection.

Good to know

1. Flood is becoming required. For Citizens policies that include wind, Florida law has been phasing in a flood insurance requirement by dwelling replacement cost since 2024, and it has applied in FEMA’s high-risk flood zones since 2023. It reaches all remaining personal residential policies effective on or after January 1, 2027. Policies without wind coverage and condo unit owner policies are exempt. (NFIP vs private flood insurance.)
2. Citizens policyholders can be surcharged. If Citizens runs a deficit after a bad storm year, the law lets it add a surcharge to its own policyholders’ bills, and assessments can reach other policyholders in Florida too (Fla. Stat. 627.351(6)(b)).
3. Read every Citizens letter the day it arrives. The deadlines are real.

Want me to look at your takeout offer?

Send me the packet, or upload your Citizens declarations page at /quote/, and I’ll compare the offer against what you have now, line by line, and shop the private market alongside it before your deadline.

Talk to Elona