New Year Means Legislative Session in Sight
The Florida legislative calendar typically ensures there’s no post-holiday haze as we return to work in the new year. This year’s session begins March 4, 2025, and lasts 60 days. This isn’t as early as some years— the session begins in January in even-numbered years. Still, committee meetings begin before the session starts so the action in Tallahassee will heat up soon.
The weeks leading up to each year’s legislative session bring the usual speculation about bills that are likely to surface, and more importantly, those that are likely to pass. In the insurance sector, the property insurance market continues to recover after significant reforms in recent years. Most notably, the legislature adopted substantial changes in late 2022 intended to curtail claims-related abuses that had been driving up claims costs and leading to higher rates.
The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation has pointed to several indicators that the reforms are working. These include the flattening of rate change requests (including rate reductions in some cases), new entrants to the market, commitments from existing insurers to take on additional policies, and renewed interest in private-market assumptions of Citizens Property Insurance Corporation policies. Insurance Commissioner Mike Yaworsky has pointed to these improvements to urge the legislature to stay the course on its regulatory approach.
Even so, the legislature will make its own assessment of trajectory the residential property market. It is possible the 2025 will not bring significant changes as prior efforts continue to take effect. However, at the other extreme, a bill has already been filed that essentially would turn Citizens into an all-comers wind market for Florida. Citizens’ President/CEO Tim Cerio has indicated the proposal is not feasible, and it doesn’t seem likely that a Republican-controlled legislature will adopt such a large increase in a statutory insurance mechanism.
Other possible topics for the upcoming session include increasing OIR’s regulatory authority, encouraging stronger building codes, and adjusting previously-adopted laws regarding condominium association maintenance reserving practices. Regardless of the eventual outcome, the imminent committee meetings and legislative session bring an abrupt end to the holiday season.