What Orlando Homeowners Need to Know When Citizens Moves You to a New Insurance Company
Depopulation letters are arriving as hurricane season peaks. Before you do nothing and lose your opt-out window, read this.
Depopulation letters are arriving as hurricane season peaks. Before you do nothing and lose your opt-out window, read this.
If a letter arrived recently from Citizens Property Insurance Corporation telling you that a company you’ve never heard of is taking over your homeowners policy, you’re not alone. You’re also not required to accept it. But you have a narrow window to say no — and that window is already running.
This is a decision guide for Orlando-area homeowners who’ve received a Citizens depopulation takeout letter or expect to receive one. It covers your legal opt-out rights, how to evaluate the financial stability of the named carrier, the critical difference between admitted and non-admitted insurance companies, what Citizens’ own rate trajectory looks like if you stay, and the local underwriting details that generic Florida insurance explainers never mention. Read it before your 30-day window closes.
What Just Arrived in Your Mailbox and Why
Citizens Property Insurance Corporation is Florida’s insurer of last resort. A state-created entity designed to provide coverage when private carriers won’t. It was never supposed to be this large.
But after a decade of private carrier exits, rate instability, and back-to-back catastrophic hurricane seasons, Citizens accumulated a disproportionate share of Central Florida’s Orange County market. Subdivision-dense areas like Conway, Hunters Creek, Windermere, and Apopka created significant exposure that private carriers systematically avoided.
Under Florida’s post-2022 legislative reforms — specifically the HB 837 and SB 2-A reform package — Citizens is legally required to shrink. Tracking that reform context is part of what we cover in our home & property coverage. The mechanism is called depopulation. Private insurance companies submit proposals to assume blocks of Citizens policies. Citizens reviews those proposals, selects participating carriers, and then notifies affected policyholders that their policy is being transferred. The takeout carrier must offer you a premium within a certain range of your current Citizens premium. That range matters more than you might think, and we’ll get to why in the rate math section below.
Here’s what genuinely stings about the timing: peak hurricane season — September and October — while tropical systems are developing in the Atlantic and Gulf. That’s no accident in the calendar. Citizens mailed during maximum anxiety because assumption periods are scheduled and policy renewals cluster during those months. The practical result is that you’re being asked to make a consequential insurance decision while watching weather maps with the same dread everyone else in Central Florida shares right now. It’s not great.
The letter names a specific private carrier and gives you a premium quote for the replacement policy. It also contains a deadline.
You Have 30 Days to Say No and Here Is Exactly How
Under Florida Statute §627.3518, you have the right to reject a takeout offer. The opt-out window is 30 days from the date printed on the letter — not the date you received it, not the date you opened it. If your letter is dated September 15, your deadline is October 15, regardless of when it showed up in your mailbox.
Miss the 30-day deadline and the transfer completes automatically. You become a customer of the new carrier at that point. Treat the deadline as firm and non-negotiable. No exceptions.
Uncertain whether your window is still open? Call Citizens at 888-685-1555 before assuming the transfer is final. They’ll tell you exactly how many days you have left.
How to Look Up Your New Carrier Before You Accept Anything
The carrier named in your letter may be genuinely unfamiliar. That’s normal in Florida’s homeowners insurance market, which is dominated by state-specific carriers rather than national brands. You’ve probably never heard of most of them — I hadn’t heard of several before covering this market. Unfamiliarity alone isn’t a red flag, but you should verify the carrier’s status through official sources before the transfer date.
Step one: Confirm the carrier is admitted in Florida for Orange County. Go to the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation’s company search tool and search for the carrier by name. You want to confirm the company holds an active certificate of authority for homeowners insurance in Orange County. An active, admitted status means the carrier has met Florida’s licensing, reserve, and capitalization requirements. If the search returns anything other than active admitted status for your coverage type and county, that’s a significant issue.
Step two: Check the carrier’s Demotech financial stability rating. Demotech is the rating agency that evaluates most Florida-specific homeowners carriers. Their ratings are publicly searchable at demotech.com. The scale runs from A” (Double Prime) at the top through A’ (Unsurpassed), A (Exceptional), M (Moderate), and L (Licensed) at the bottom. For a takeout carrier, you want to see a rating in the A range at minimum.
Here’s where I have to be honest with you about the limits of that check. Several Florida carriers held A-range Demotech ratings within 12 to 18 months of becoming insolvent. Avatar Property and Casualty, Lighthouse Property Insurance, and St. Johns Insurance all entered financial distress or insolvency — some while holding ratings that reflected adequate capitalization at the time the rating was issued. Demotech ratings are a floor check, not a guarantee of stability. They tell you the carrier met standards when evaluated; they don’t predict the future. Use them as one data point, not the only one.
Step three: Check the NAIC complaint ratio. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners maintains a complaint index at naic.org that shows how many complaints a carrier received relative to the size of its book of business. A ratio above 1.0 means the carrier received more complaints than the industry median. A new or small carrier may not have enough history to generate a meaningful ratio, which is itself useful information — you’d be writing a policy with a carrier that has essentially no track record in Florida.
Admitted vs. Non-Admitted and the Distinction That Could Cost You Everything
This is the distinction that matters most if your carrier becomes insolvent, and it’s the one that almost no local coverage explains clearly. Stay with me here.
An admitted carrier is licensed by the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation with posted required reserves. It falls under state regulatory oversight. If an admitted carrier becomes insolvent, Florida’s Insurance Guaranty Association (FIGA) steps in and covers outstanding claims up to $300,000 per claim for homeowners policies. Verify FIGA’s current coverage terms at figafla.com or Florida Statute §631.57.
A surplus-lines carrier — also called a non-admitted carrier — is not licensed through the standard Florida admissions process. They can legally operate in Florida to cover risks that admitted carriers won’t take. Some are financially strong, reputable companies. But here’s what matters for your specific situation: FIGA does not cover claims from non-admitted carriers. If your takeout carrier is a surplus-lines company and it becomes insolvent, you have no guaranty association protection. You become a general unsecured creditor in the insolvency proceedings — which in practical terms means you stand in line behind secured creditors, and you may recover pennies on the dollar for an unpaid claim, or nothing at all.
Between 2022 and 2023, Florida saw the insolvency or severe financial distress of multiple carriers including Avatar Property and Casualty Insurance, FedNat, and Lighthouse Property Insurance Corporation. Tens of thousands of Central Florida homeowners were affected. Some had policies transfer to other carriers through FIGA with minimal disruption; others faced coverage gaps in the middle of active claims. That gap — between “covered by FIGA” and “standing in insolvency proceedings” — is exactly what the admitted versus non-admitted distinction determines. When you run the OIR lookup on your takeout carrier, the admission status field will tell you which category you’re in. If it’s surplus-lines, factor that into your decision with full awareness that FIGA is not your safety net.
The Rate Math and What Staying With Citizens Will Actually Cost You
If you opt out and stay with Citizens, you’re not opting out of future premium increases — you’re accepting a different rate trajectory. And the math compounds faster than most people expect. For broader context on what the private market is charging for comparable coverage right now, see what Orlando homeowners are actually paying for property insurance in 2026.
Florida law caps the annual premium increase for a primary homestead Citizens policy at 15% per year. That sounds modest until you run it forward.
If your current Citizens homestead premium is $3,000, here’s what the 15% path looks like over three years:
- Year one: $3,000 × 1.15 = $3,450
- Year two: $3,450 × 1.15 = $3,968
- Year three: $3,968 × 1.15 = $4,563
That’s a 52% total increase over three years, all within the legally permissible cap. Citizens doesn’t guarantee it hits the cap every year — rate filings vary — but the direction is locked in.
Non-homestead properties face a steeper path. If you own a short-term rental in Champions Gate, a vacation property near the tourist corridor, or an investment property anywhere in the metro, Citizens can increase your premium up to 50% per year for non-homestead policies. Run that math: a $3,000 non-homestead premium becomes $4,500 in year one, $6,750 in year two, and over $10,000 in year three. Orlando’s short-term rental operators who assumed Citizens coverage was a stable long-term solution should recalibrate that assumption immediately — if you haven’t already.
Citizens is explicitly required by statute to move toward rates that reflect actual costs. Premiums go up until Citizens’ rate matches what it actually costs to insure a Florida home. This rate path math is why accepting a takeout carrier charging 20% more than your current Citizens premium today may actually be the less expensive decision by year two or three. The comparison isn’t Citizens’ current rate against the takeout offer’s current rate — it’s the net present value of both paths over the life of your policy. Citizens publishes its rate filings, including approved Orange County rate schedules, at citizensfla.com under the “Rate Filings” section.
The Carriers Operating in the Orlando Area Right Now
The specific carriers participating in a given Citizens assumption period change each cycle, so the carrier named in your letter is the one that matters for your evaluation. That said, several carriers have been active in the Orange County takeout market in recent cycles.
Slide Insurance has been one of the more active Citizens takeout carriers statewide and has participated in Orange County assumptions. SafePoint Insurance Company is a Florida-specific admitted carrier that has participated in Citizens depopulation and operates in the Central Florida market. Heritage Property and Casualty Insurance Company is a Florida carrier that has participated in Citizens takeouts across South and Central Florida. Ovation Home Insurance Exchange is a newer market entrant that has been active in the Central Florida market. TypTap, which has re-entered the Florida market, may appear on your letter.
Verify each carrier’s current OIR admission status and Demotech rating directly through floir.com and demotech.com before relying on any of these names. The authoritative, real-time list of carriers approved for the assumption period tied to your specific policy is published at Citizens’ depopulation section at citizensfla.com. That list is updated by assumption round and is the only source you should trust for current participation status.
If you hold a Citizens HO-6 condo unit policy — common in the I-Drive corridor, Baldwin Park, College Park’s condo conversions, Thornton Park, and the UCF corridor — your situation involves an additional layer of complexity. Condo associations carry their own master policies, and the interaction between your HO-6 takeout offer and the association’s master policy terms matters significantly. The deductible structures and loss assessment coverage in a replacement HO-6 may not align with what you currently have. Review the replacement policy’s loss assessment coverage limit specifically before accepting.
Orlando-Specific Flags Before You Sign Anything
Generic Florida depopulation explainers don’t address the local underwriting details that determine whether the policy on paper delivers what you think it delivers. These are the ones I keep coming back to for the Orlando market specifically.
Roof age restrictions. Many takeout carriers impose underwriting restrictions based on roof age that Citizens doesn’t currently enforce in the same way. Carriers are increasingly refusing to write or renew policies on roofs over 15 years. If your home has a roof installed in the late 1980s or 1990s — common in Orlando’s older suburban stock in Conway, College Park, Apopka, and the Edgewater area — a takeout carrier’s policy language may limit wind coverage, exclude the roof from replacement cost coverage, or require a higher wind deductible. Read the replacement policy’s roof age provisions against your current Citizens coverage before the window closes.
Wind deductibles after Ian. Hurricane Ian’s track through Central Florida in September 2022 caused enough roof and structure damage that some properties in the metro had claims history or roof condition changes affecting how takeout carriers now underwrite wind deductibles. If your roof was repaired or replaced after Ian, confirm that the repair documentation is in order and that the takeout carrier’s wind deductible structure for your specific roof type matches what you had with Citizens.
Flood zone adjacency in Hunters Creek, Windermere, and the Butler Chain. Homeowners insurance doesn’t cover flood, whether from Citizens or a takeout carrier — that’s worth stating plainly. But properties in flood-adjacent areas along the Butler Chain of Lakes, in Windermere’s lakefront subdivisions, and in lower-lying sections of Hunters Creek sometimes carry wind and water deductible language that’s more complex than standard suburban properties. If your property is near water, read the replacement policy’s flood and water damage exclusions carefully against your current Citizens policy language.
Short-term rental operators and non-homestead classification. A significant number of homeowners in the tourist-corridor markets near Champions Gate, Davenport, and the Four Corners area operate short-term rentals. If Citizens has your property classified as non-homestead — which is likely for a short-term rental — the takeout carrier’s offer may include different restrictions on occupancy type, coverage during periods when the home is rented, and liability limits. Confirm that the replacement policy explicitly covers short-term rental use before accepting. Don’t assume it does.
Your Decision Checklist Before the 30-Day Window Closes
1. Find your letter date and calculate the hard deadline. The date printed on the letter — not the postmark, not the day you opened it — is day one. Count 30 calendar days forward. Write that date somewhere you won’t lose it. If the date has already passed, call Citizens at 888-685-1555 to confirm whether your window is still open before assuming the transfer is final.
2. Run the OIR company lookup. Go to floir.com and search for the carrier named in your letter. Confirm active, admitted status for homeowners insurance in Orange County. If the carrier comes back as surplus-lines, note that and factor in the FIGA non-coverage issue.
3. Check the Demotech rating. Go to demotech.com and find your carrier’s current rating. Confirm it’s in the A range at minimum, and note when the rating was last updated.
4. Check the NAIC complaint index. Go to naic.org and look up your carrier’s complaint ratio. A ratio above 1.0 relative to the industry median is worth noting.
5. Run the rate math for your specific property type. If your property is a homestead primary residence, apply 15% compounding to your current Citizens premium for three years and compare that path to the takeout offer. If your property is non-homestead, apply the 50% annual cap instead. This comparison determines whether today’s price difference actually matters over your expected holding period.
6. Read the replacement policy’s roof age and wind deductible language. The takeout carrier is required to provide you the full policy terms. Compare the roof age provisions and wind deductible structure directly against your current Citizens policy. If anything is tighter — age limits, deductible percentages, exclusions — that’s a material change worth understanding before your deadline.
7. Confirm flood zone status and water exclusion language if you’re near a lake or low-lying area. If your property is in a Special Flood Hazard Area or adjacent to one, make sure the replacement policy’s water damage exclusion language matches your expectations.
8. If anything is unclear, call an independent agent or Citizens directly. An independent agent who is not affiliated with the takeout carrier can review both policies side by side without a financial interest in which one you choose. Citizens’ policyholder services line is 888-685-1555. Neither conversation costs you anything, and either one might clarify a provision that changes your decision entirely.
The depopulation letter is a proposal with a deadline. Nothing has changed yet — but it will if you let the window close without making an active choice.
Rate figures and carrier status information in this article are current as of fall 2026 publication. Carrier Demotech ratings and OIR admission status change; verify both directly through demotech.com and floir.com before making any coverage decision. This article is editorial coverage and does not constitute legal or insurance advice.
