In push to remove homeowners from Citizens, the state-run insurer uses unlicensed inspectors

In late 2022, Melissa Marro got a notice from her private home insurance company that her rates would soon go up to a degree she found shockingly high. The only option, her insurance agent told her, was to see if she qualified for Citizens Property Insurance, the state created and taxpayer-owned property insurance company.

Marro hired a licensed inspector to come to her Palm Harbor home in the Tampa Bay region in order to do a four-point inspection and a wind mitigation inspection. After she sent in the resulting reports, Citizens accepted her home, and she breathed a sigh of relief.

It was much cheaper than the private cost of insurance she had just been quoted.

“Then shortly after the policy started with Citizens, I received an email saying: ‘You have to have another home inspection.’ And I didn't understand why, since I had just had two inspections,” said Marro.

What happened next to Marro in Palm Harbor is a byproduct of a major but little-known push by Citizens to inspect a startlingly large number of homes per year, and the methods it is using to go about it.