PORT RICHEY, Fla. – Now that the 2024 hurricane season is over, tens of thousands of Citizens Property Insurance policyholders are receiving replacement offers as the state insurer of last resort continues to reduce its number of policies, pulling more than 428,000 policies from Citizens’ books in 2024.

This happens through what Citizens calls the “depopulation process,” which allows insurance companies to cherry-pick Citizens’ policies and make a quote to the homeowner. If this offer is less than 20% of the current rate the homeowner is paying, the homeowner will no longer be eligible for Citizens.”

The success of the process was evident in late November, when the number of Citizens policies fell below 1 million policies in November, a key milestone, according to Tim Cerio, CEO of Citizens.

“This is huge. There has never been a year like this,” Cerio said. “This shows again that the reforms passed by the legislature are working.”

However, not everyone is happy with the takeout process. Over the year, several homeowners emailed ABC Action News anchor Nadeen Yanes because they were frustrated and worried the price increases would force them out of their homes.

“The citizen renewal fee for the year was $1,356 and the new business costs more than $1,600, but we were told this is within the 20 percent mark of the citizen renewal fee. That may be the case for this year, but next year, who knows what the renewal fee will be,” wrote Port Richey resident Holly Wilke. “We are retired and my husband is a 100% disabled veteran and our house payments will certainly increase. The question is, will they rise so much that we lose our house? We don’t think any of the politicians want help in this crisis!”

We brought Wilke’s concerns back to Cerio.

“It’s so difficult. I mean, your heart goes out to the people who are in need, nobody wants their rates to go up,” Cerio added. “But because of the way Florida statutes are written and the rates we were given, they pay a lower rate than they would in the private market. And when the market recovers and comes in, people will be taken out.” They don’t want a government-founded insurer competing with the private market.”

There will be another round of takeouts on December 17th, with five companies: American Integrity, Florida Peninsula, Slide Insurance, Manatee Insurance and Trident all taking on Citizens policies.

Citizens Property Insurance has resources and a new 5-part video series explaining your options and what to do if you receive one of these take-out offers, which are expected to last until 2025.