LONGWOOD, Fla. — Following last year's major hurricanes and the 2021 Surfside building collapse in South Florida, both homeowners associations and condo associations across the state have been hit hard with either raising dues, assessments or special assessments to help fund insurance reserves.

What You Need To Know

  • Average insurance increases to Florida homeowners associations is about 40%

  • HOAs are raising dues or assessing to recover costs

  • At the Wekiva Country Club Villas in Longwood, dues are increasing by $192 a month in 2024

Across the state, the average HOA is seeing insurance increases of at least 40%, with a very limited pool of insurers to choose from.

“The rates are higher, the underwriting is more restrictive, so that’s unusual,” said Richard Kerr, a commercial insurance broker for Insurance of America. “In the 12 years I have been doing that, I haven’t seen that.”

The Wekiva Country Club Villas Homeowners Association in Longwood is dealing with that problem, as the line item for insurance is going from $91,000 in 2023 to $233,000 next year.

Ivy Piche, who lives in one of the nearly 70 townhomes in the community, said  she'll have to come up with an extra $2,300 to pay for increased HOA dues, with $1,900 of that going toward the community's insurance.

According to Piche, 15 units saw roof damage from Hurricane Ian last year. Their current insurance company denied a claim to repair the roofs and the HOA is now trying to sue the insurance company.

But she said that doesn’t help when locking in a rate.

“I don’t know what I will do,” said Piche. “I don’t even know that if you can sell once this is enforced.”

The new rate for Ivy and her neighbors goes into effect on Jan. 1.