Citizens’ latest issue

Being an insured with Citizens Property Insurance Corporation isn’t easy. You are dealing with a large, overburdened company, who frankly, would probably prefer you be insured with someone else.  Otherwise, where would they get their famous moniker, the “insurance company of last resort?”

In the most recent bout of ‘uglies from Citizens’, we find a new report that even the mail is having trouble finding itself into the maze that is Citizens. Apparently, Citizens is reporting that it had difficulty processing the payments it received from its insureds during the month of June.

If you mailed in your payment directly to Citizens any time during the month of June, it would be wise to confirm it has cleared the bank.  If you mailed in payments between June 14 and June 18, you should probably call them directly.

The details

The report follows on the heels of learning that mail normally sent to the headquarters appears to have been fraudulently forwarded to an apartment in Hialeah, Florida. The exact scope of the fraud is still under investigation but any Citizens insureds would be smart to double check any payments or other mail sent to Citizens during this time period.

The hotline to resolve this issue is (888) 685-1555. Citizens spokespeople have used this opportunity to point out how technology has evolved to the point where making payments online is actually more secure than via mail these days.

How to know if you’ve been affected

If Citizens did not receive an expected payment from you, you would likely have received a notice.  If you have the payments made from an escrow account, as many people do when they pay their mortgage, you would receive a notice from the mortgage company threatening to buy insurance on your behalf.

Regardless, I would suggest you be proactive, so as to not cause any disturbance in coverage.  If you were to let your coverage lapse, you would likely lose your sinkhole coverage altogether.