Continuing efforts to shift homeowners into the private insurance market, regulators on Friday said they have approved the removal of up to 15,000 residential policies in July from the state-backed Citizens Property Insurance Corp.
The Office of Insurance Regulation approved Southern Oak Insurance Co. to remove the policies from Citizens --- part of what is known as a "takeout" process.
Citizens has used the process in recent years to help dramatically reduce the number of homes that it covers.
While up to 15,000 policies have been approved for removal, many will remain in Citizens because private insurers typically seek the least-risky policies and policyholders can opt to reject offers.
Regulators have approved up to 459,684 polices to be part of the takeout process this year. As of March 22, 33,434 policies had been removed, the Office of Insurance Regulation said in a release Friday.