Citizens Homeowners Insurance Review (2021)
Citizens homeowners insurance offers Floridians a cheap insurance alternative. If you can’t get insurance because of the location of your property, your risk factors, or the insurance price, Citizens insurance has you covered. However, while the company is strongly rated, it does receive a higher than usual number of complaints.
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UPDATED: Oct 2, 2022
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We strive to help you make confident insurance and legal decisions. Finding trusted and reliable insurance quotes and legal advice should be easy. This doesn’t influence our content. Our opinions are our own.
Editorial Guidelines: We are a free online resource for anyone interested in learning more about legal topics and insurance. Our goal is to be an objective, third-party resource for everything legal and insurance related. We update our site regularly, and all content is reviewed by experts.
UPDATED: Oct 2, 2022
asdfIt’s all about you. We want to help you make the right legal decisions.
We strive to help you make confident insurance and legal decisions. Finding trusted and reliable insurance quotes and legal advice should be easy. This doesn’t influence our content. Our opinions are our own.
On This Page
- Citizens Property Insurance Corporation is a not-for-profit in Florida offering property insurance for people who can’t get coverage elsewhere
- Due to recent insurance rate hikes, Citizens is becoming an increasingly popular choice
- Despite its growing customer pool, Citizens receives more complaints than average for a company of its size
- The most common complaints center around the amount of money Citizens gives for payouts, coverage is limited, and rates are too high
Citizens Property Insurance Corporation was created in 2002 by the State of Florida to help property owners get homeowner’s insurance when they can’t find it elsewhere. Unlike many private insurance companies, Citizens is a tax-exempt non-profit organization run by the state government.
Citizens earns praise because they put their employees first. Moreover, they follow a mission to serve the people of Florida rather than increase profits. It’s responsible for managing public funds, and it takes that job seriously.
As one of Florida’s largest insurers of both homes and businesses, Citizens gives its customers the same level of service they would receive from a private company.
If you’re interested in affordable Citizens homeownerss insurance, a good place to start is with free quotes. If you’re ready to see what homeowner’s insurance quotes might look like for you, enter your ZIP code into our free tool to get started.
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Citizens Homeowner’s Insurance Review
Citizens home insurance is becoming an increasingly popular choice amongst Florida residents because of the recent rise in property insurance rates. As fewer people can afford to use private companies for their insurance needs, they turn to Citizens.
The rate increase for property insurance comes in the wake of hurricanes. These events caused massive property damage to Florida homes. As claims increased, Florida insurance companies had to raise their rates to stay in business.
One of the key reasons that Citizens is one of the largest insurance companies in Florida is because other companies won’t insure certain high-risk regions.
For property owners within those regions and other high-risk applicants, Citizens is a last-resort option for Floridians to get the insurance they need.
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How much does Citizens cost?
Citizens does not post information about their prices online. In fact, one of the chief complaints against the company is that finding pricing information can be difficult.
In general, however, rates for Citizens homeowner’s insurance tend to be much lower than other companies in Florida.
For insurance quotes or to buy Citizens homeowner’s insurance, you should call the Citizens’ Customer Care Center at (888) 685-1555. They are open between the hours of 8 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. EST.
How do you file a claim with Citizens?
Citizens’ Insurance Claims Center customer representatives are knowledgeable about the claims process. If you have any questions, this is a great resource to start with.
New Link Destination file a claim with Citizens, you have to call. There is no online option. The number to file a claim is (866) 411-2742.
When you call, you should have information about your claim ready. You’ll need to describe the damage done to your property, as well as the status of your home. If your home is unlivable, you’ll have a higher priority in the claims line.
After you’ve filed your claim, you’ll be contacted by an adjuster to complete the claim by performing an inspection. The adjuster will verify the claim that you made, complete a report, and push your claim to the next step in the process.
Citizens’ Customer Complaints
Every insurance company will have customer complaints. One of the biggest factors used to determine the strength of an insurance company is to look at how many complaints they receive and how they resolve them.
So, how does Citizens handle complaints? The Better Business Bureau does not accredit Citizens homeowner’s insurance company, but they have been given a rating of A. However, out of 59 ratings left by customers, 42 gave them only one star.
While the complaints are varied, people commonly mention that Citizens denies claims because it provides limited coverage. Another common grievance is that pay-outs don’t cover the total cost of repairs because of the way Citizens values properties.
Even though Citizens is meant to be a low-cost option for people that can’t find insurance anywhere else, reviewers also mention that prices are too high.
Despite the complaints, Citizens receives high rates from insurance ranking companies:
- AM Best ranks them as stable, with an A rating
- Fitch also ranks them as stable at an AA rating
- S&P gives them an A rating and marks them as stable
Citizens might not offer as much coverage as you’d like, but it’s an excellent choice if you have no other option for insurance.
What types of coverage does Citizens offer?
Citizens offers several types of homeowners and renters insurance. For example, since Florida is susceptible to extreme weather, one of Citizens’ most popular policies is its wind-only policy.
However, Citizens’ most common policy is its personal residential multi-peril policy. This is a basic homeowners policy that offers standard property coverage. About half of the policies Citizens sells are personal residential.
Citizens divides its policies into different classifications based on the type of building it insures. Traditional homeowners, mobile homeowners, and condo owners have their own special needs. Citizen insurance provides unique policies to meet those needs.
You can also get a content-only policy if you are a renter, which protects your personal items without any protection for the actual building. Renter’s insurance not only protects all of your material belongings, but it’s also cheap.
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Find Quotes for Citizens Homeowner’s Insurance
Getting the right property insurance is invaluable, especially for Florida residents who live with extreme weather. If you live in a region marked as uninsurable by other companies, or you’re high-risk for any other reason, Citizen home insurance can provide you with the coverage you need.
As a last-resort option, you should always shop around for quotes before you turn to Citizens. If you’re ready to see what quotes might look like for you, enter your ZIP code into our free tool to get started.
Enter your ZIP code below to compare cheap insurance rates.
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Editorial Guidelines: We are a free online resource for anyone interested in learning more about legal topics and insurance. Our goal is to be an objective, third-party resource for everything legal and insurance related. We update our site regularly, and all content is reviewed by experts.