Sen. Danny Burgess has filed legislation that would require homeowners policy insurers to give ratepayers better notification of policy cancellation, nonrenewal or rate changes.

The bill (SB 128) would require 45 days’ written notice, mailed to the policyholder’s last known address. The bill would also require email notification if the policyholder provided an email address.

The bill would require at least 10 days written notice, including the reason for any cancellation due to nonpayment. The bill exempts homeowners policies that require monthly payments from the 10-day notification requirement.

The new provision would be added to Florida state statute 627.7011 as a seventh section. The existing statute includes provisions on insurer requirements prior to issuing a policy, including information on what is and is not covered and is intended to “encourage policyholders to purchase sufficient coverage to protect them in case events excluded from the standard homeowners policy” cause damage or loss to the insured property.

A separate statute, 627.4133, includes similar requirements on notification of rate changes, but does not include an email correspondence provision. It calls for “at least 45 days’ advance written notice of the renewal premium” and 120 days of advanced notification for nonrenewal, cancellation or termination. It also includes the provision for 10 days written notice along with reasoning for cancellation due to nonpayment.

The bill, filed ahead of the Christmas holiday for the 2025 Legislative Session, comes as property owners fear widespread premium increases after a hurricane season that saw back-to-back landfalls along the Gulf Coast. Hurricane Milton made landfall in the Sarasota area just south of Tampa Bay in early October, just 12 days after Hurricane Helene made landfall in the Big Bend region in late September. Though Helene was far offshore from the Tampa Bay area, storm surge caused major flooding, even in areas that had never before flooded.

“This is … certainly going to cause insurers to be concerned about continuing to insure in the market,” said Marc Ragin, associate professor of risk management and insurance in the Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia, according to Reuters.

However, Citizens Property Insurance, the state’s insurer of last resort, dropped tens of thousands of policies heading into 2025, a sign that more policies were being picked up by private insurers, according to Newsweek.

Another bill, filed by Rep. Hillary Cassel, a former Democrat who recently changed her party affiliation to Republican, would transition Citizens from the insurer of last resort to the insurer of first resort, but for windstorm damage only. The bill would be modeled after a California law, the FAIR Plan. It provides basic fire insurance coverage to properties unable to obtain private coverage. Some believe such a program for windstorm damage — Florida’s most prevalent natural disaster — would allow private rates to drop.

But the issue, which came up in the 2024 Session but failed to gain traction, has some people skeptical. Citizens CEO Tim Cerio said during an event last June that the agency would require “about $3.2 trillion in insured value” to support such a transition, a price tag he said was “untenable.”

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