As you may have heard, there is an issue concerning Citizen's Insurance overcharging their customers based on a seemingly incorrect rate calculator. The problem is that Citizen's is appraising the homes of its customers at a much higher value than they are actually worth. This causes customers rates to be increased, sometimes thousands of dollars more per year.
We have received many complaints in our office regarding this issue and I would like to share with you the advice we have been giving our constituents. Our office is recommending the homeowner have an appraisal done - not a full home appraisal, rather ask the appraiser for a "suggested replacement cost of dwelling." This is the cost to construct a building with equivalent utility at current prices, materials, standards, design and layout which only includes the actual building and not the land surround it.
Upon receiving a suggested replacement cost of dwelling, providing that it is lower than the appraised value Citizen's suggested (in most cases it usually is), Citizen's will readjust the rate and decrease it to match the new appraised value, potentially saving the customer up to thousands of dollars a year.
Just as an example, after contacting our office, one of our constituents requested the replacement cost of his home and found out that Citizen's appraised his house at $45,000 more than the replacement cost. Instead of an increase of thousands of dollars that Citizen's originally charged, his increase turned out to be only $90.