The Florida homeowners insurance market has been in crisis for years. Insurance premiums are the highest in the nation, more than twice the national average, and insurance reform is a constant balanced act between consumer protection and market sustainability. However, this year, Florida homeowners are facing high prices and hurricanes. Political Gridlock stopped Florida’s 2025 legislative meeting just days before the official start of the hurricane season, stopping major insurance reforms.
Florida’s budget delays stem from a conflict between the House and Senate over tax cuts. The House hopes for a wide range of sales tax cuts to reduce the state’s general sales tax rate from 6% to 5.25%. The Senate supports a more targeted approach, such as eliminating sales taxes for clothing prices under $75. Gov. Ron DeSantis is not on sale under either plan and instead seeks a fixed asset tax cut. Unless there was an agreement, lawmakers extended the session until June 6th. Expansion until June 30th. This has resulted in either being within scope or completely disappearing major issues such as homeowner insurance reform.
Florida people narrow down the cost of insurance for expensive homes Economic uncertaintyFinding additional funds for storm-bearing upgrades could be a struggle. One bill, SB 1468proposed to sell and use tax-free extreme weather mitigation products.
Hold or withdraw your major homeowner insurance claim
Florida Homeowners Market For over 30 years, it has been plagued by issues caused by insurance companies breakdowns, claims of denial and increased profits. All of this has lost faith in the insurance company by many homeowners. Recently, in February 2025 Report It implies that in 2022, an insurance company commissioned by the Florida Department of Insurance Regulation (OIR) filed a massive rate hike (a type of insurance broker acting on behalf of an insurance company) filed a massive rate hike while winning billions.
According to Mark Friedlander, director of media relations at the Insurance Information Institute, the incomplete report did not accurately reflect the situation.
The 2017-2019 report surveyed was an incomplete draft and highly misleading. Only partial financial data was included on how general agent and affiliate management was compensated during this period. Written by a consultant who appears to have no knowledge of the operation of an insurance company.
– Mark Freedlander
Senior Director of Media Relations, Insurance Information Research Institute
For this report, this session was drafted in this session with transparency with homeowners in mind.
All of these bills have been postponed indefinitely and withdrawn from consideration.
Only 16 invoices to consider during the extension, none of which involves home insurance reform.
What party-to-party confusion means for Florida homeowners
The ultimate goal of Florida insurance reform is to make homeowners’ insurance available immediately. for example, Senate Bill 2-A The law was signed on December 16th, 2022. The law eliminated one-way attorney’s fees for many household insurance cases liable for the Florida ramp extension. Legal system abuse. Under the one-way lawyers’ fees system, insurance companies were required to pay policyholder’s legal fees if the carrier was lost in court.
Currently, homeowners must pay their court fees. This will reduce the number of state lawsuits, which will help lower rates and allow more airlines to be brought into the state. But that also means that many homeowners who have legal cases against carriers cannot afford to spend a day in court.
On paper, many of these reforms enacted between 2022 and 2024 appear to be working. As of April 2025, 12 new home insurance companies It has entered the Florida market and is giving homeowners more options. Florida’s last resort career, citizens have Over 378,000 have been moved Policy back to the open market for the past year. Depopulation of citizens is an important step that could help revitalize the private insurance sector and is necessary to reduce the burden on state funding.
But it works if the cleaning reforms enacted between 2022 and 2024 are a topic of discussion among many homeowners, even those familiar with the insurance industry, are a topic of discussion among many homeowners, according to Florida homeowner and public claims coordinator.
Many Floridians are still waiting for the promise to reach affordable wallets. As of May 2025, Florida homeowners will pay $5,409 a year with $5,409 per year residential coverage, according to a Bankrate analysis. This is 132% higher than the national average of $2,329. Prices have been stable over the past two years, but Florida has the second highest average home insurance rate in the country. And it’s much higher when compared to other states that are prone to hurricane losses.
Roach pointed to another dilemma that may have flew under the radar of legislators, but may not be a homeowner. By the constitution, Florida legislative meetings last for 60 days and should end this year at the beginning of May. This unprecedented situation pushes the session down to at least 95 days and advances into hurricane season. That means some homeowners are already feeling the economic impact of the Tallahassee turmoil.
“Each session lawmaker agrees to a hurricane tax leave,” Roach says. “This bill didn’t happen this year. The fact that Floridians are unable to obtain financial relief this year is a direct result of the legislative stalemate. These delays not only impact policy, but also have real consequences for homeowners looking to prepare for a storm.”
Conclusion
Reforming the Florida insurance market is a long game, a game that requires sustainability, compromise and time to produce results. However, all delays fall into public trust. Sometimes even an inaction look sends to the very people who are trying to protect the wrong signals.
“Delay sends a clear message,” says Wilson. “Police priorities come before people’s financial survival. Hurricane season is June 1st, and homeowners are clinging to record premiums, shrinking and actual consumer protection.
At the time of publication, the Florida home extended its regular 2025 legislative meeting until June 30th, but the Senate has not agreed to it after the original June 2nd extension. But the clock is ticking. If lawmakers fail to reach budget contracts by July 1, Florida could encounter the first government shutdown during above-average hurricane season, with forecasts that three to five hurricanes will reach major hurricane status.
