Nationwide canceling property insurance again as it offers slight drop in rates
 

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – March 8, 2007 – After submitting a rate decline proposal to Florida’s government, Nationwide resumed issuing notices to many homeowners that their policies would not be renewed.

The insurer stated that homeowners were given the required 100 days notice and that the carrier is merely following through on its strategic plan to no longer issue new property policies in Florida, company spokesman Joe Case said Wednesday.

Nationwide announced in August 2005 that it would eliminate about 35,000 homeowners’ policies across the state, but was forced to stop sending notices to clients in January 2007 when the state issued an emergency cease and desist order for all insurers in the market.

Homeowners are concerned that the reforms passed in Florida have done little to stave off the inevitable loss of coverage. Nationwide reported that recent hurricane models were used to determine the riskiest properties in the state, and those are the homes the firm will no longer insure.

Nationwide is not the only insurance carrier dropping policies in the state; for example, Allstate Floridian Insurance Co. plans to eliminate over 100,000 of its current policies in April.

Source: Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel (FL) (03/08/07) Bushouse, Kathy
 

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