By JOHN HIELSCHER

 

 

This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Local customers of State Farm Florida must travel to Lake Buena Vista next week if they wish to speak out about the proposed doubling of their homeowners insurance rates.

The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation is scheduled to hold public hearings Monday on State Farm's bid to raise premiums on its 915,000 home, condo and tenants policies.

The company's proposal would boost rates an average 117.3 percent in Charlotte County, 116.1 percent in Sarasota County and 113 percent in Manatee County.

These are the only hearings scheduled right now, so they might be the only chance for customers to have their say.

The state must hold public hearings when companies want to raise rates more than 10 percent.

State Farm, Florida's largest property insurer, has actually filed for two homeowners increases.

One would raise rates a statewide average 61.5 percent to offset its higher reinsurance rates. Another of 11.9 percent would pay for higher claims costs.

Some of these public hearings have been poorly attended. A hearing last October in Manatee County on State Farm's 8.6 percent rate increase failed to draw a single person.

"Overall, these have not been well-attended," said Office of Insurance Regulation spokesman Bob Lotane. "But this could be different."

The state chose Lake Buena Vista because Orange County has the third-largest number of State Farm customers. It's more centrally located than Broward and Duval, the company's top counties.

The company writes about 58,000 policies in Sarasota, Manatee and Charlotte that will be affected by the rate hike.