From Staff Reports
AAA, the national member association and service organization with over 60 million members in the United States and Canada, announced it would not renew some of its homeowners and auto insurance policies in Florida.
In its statement on Tuesday, it wrote:
“Unfortunately, Florida’s insurance market has become challenging in recent years. Last year’s catastrophic hurricane season contributed to an unprecedented rise in reinsurance rates, making it more costly for insurance companies to operate. Prior to that, the market was already strained by increased claims costs due to inflation and excessive litigation,” the statement continued. This is a decision we do not take lightly. We acknowledge that this is a difficult time for those affected."
It also assured residents this was a scaling-back process, not an exodus.
"AAA insurance is not leaving Florida," it stated on its Twitter account. "We are actively writing new insurance policies and will continue to grow our policy count year over year. We will work with any policyholder that receives one of our small number of non-renewals that is issued in order to manage our risk."
AAA's decision comes on the heels of Farmer's Insurance discontinuing new coverage of auto, home and umbrella policies in Florida, joining a long list of insurance companies scaling back in Florida.
According to the statement, only “a very small percentage” of higher exposure homeowner’s policies are affected by the change, and those policyholders have been notified that their plan will not renew, the company said.
Last year Banker's Insurance and Lexington Insurance also left the Florida homeowners market.
Floridians are currently paying on average about $6,000 for their yearly home insurance premium, a 42% increase compared to last year. In contrast, the average annual premium across the country is approximately $1,700.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has predicted a near-normal hurricane activity season with 12 to 17 total named storms — one to four of which it said could become major hurricanes.