A bill was recently introduced in the Florida House of Representatives Subcommittee on Insurance and Banking that would require Citizens Property Insurance Corp to offer wind- only policies for all Florida homes and commercial residential structures.

The bill which was filed on Jan. 6, 2025, hopes to expand the availability of Citizens Property windstorm coverage across the state.

If the bill passes and is signed into law, it will go into effect on July 1 and would mandate that Citizens' wind-only policies must include coverage for the structure of a home or business as well as its contents. Coverage would be irrespective of any additional coverage for other carriers providing protection against other perils.

Florida homeowners would be required to purchase homeowners coverage for non-wind related perils in the private insurance market.

According to a recent AM Best report, the legislation would require the windstorm coverage offered by Citizens Property be available to homeowners, condominium associations, as well as other residential structures. This would include mobile homes that the meet tie-down standards that are set by the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.

The bill which is House Bill 13 was introduced by Rep. Hillary Cassel, a Republican representing Florida's 101st district. This is the second time Cassel has introduced this bill, the earlier version received push back from industry groups. Their argument against the bill was that it would push up costs on taxpayers while also expanding Citizen's coverage portfolio when it was designed to be Florida's role as insurer of last resort.

Mark Friedlander, director of corporate communications for the Insurance Information Institute, had concerns regarding its potential financial impact. He suggested that it could end up exposing the state to significant financial risk.

The CEO of Citizens agreed. "If we went down that road of being the wind-only provider of first resort in Florida, we would have to have about $3.2 trillion in insured value, the price tag is untenable," said Tim Cerio CEO of Citizens to WPTV during a "Coverage Collapse" special in June 2024.