Inside Citizens Insurance’s 90% Arbitration Advantage — and What It Means for Florida Policyholders
Florida’s property insurance system has been in turmoil for years. Hurricanes regularly cause billions in losses, insurers pull out or collapse, and premiums soar higher than anywhere else in the nation. To keep homeowners and condo associations insured, the state created Citizens Property Insurance Corporation in 2002. Citizens was supposed to be a last-resort option — coverage available only when private insurers weren’t. Yet over time, it has grown into the largest property insurer in Florida, with more than 1.3 million active policies. And with that growth has come a troubling shift: Citizens has leaned heavily on arbitration clauses that funnel policyholders out of open court and into private proceedings. The results speak volumes. In arbitration, Citizens prevails about 90%
