Renters in Florida have a rare piece of insurance news to read this month: a price going down. The state insurance regulator has approved an average 12.8 percent rate decrease on renters policies written by one company, American Modern Home Insurance Company, and the lower rates begin on October 11. The approval was announced on October 2, 2026, and it covers new policies as well as renewals.
What the Office of Insurance Regulation approved for American Modern renters policies
The announcement came from Commissioner Mike Yaworsky’s Florida Office of Insurance Regulation. In its October 2 press release, the office said American Modern Home Insurance Company “is now approved for an average -12.8% rate decrease for HO-4 policies, affecting approximately 121,898 exposures.” HO-4 is the industry’s code for renters insurance, the policy a tenant buys to cover belongings and liability in a rented house, apartment or condominium unit.
The effective date is spelled out in the same release: the rate change starts Oct. 11 for new policies and renewals. That wording matters for timing. A tenant who takes out a new American Modern renters policy on or after October 11 is written at the new rate level, and a tenant whose existing policy renews on or after that date moves to it at renewal. The release does not describe any mid-term adjustment for policies that renewed before October 11.
The regulator’s own headline puts the scale at more than 120,000 rental insurance policies. The body of the release uses a more careful word, exposures, which is an insurance measure of the units being covered rather than a head count of households. For that reason the figure of about 121,898 is best read as the size of the book the new rates apply to, not as the number of Florida renters who will see a lower bill.
Why 12.8 percent is an average across the book, not a promise for each renter
The 12.8 percent figure is an average decrease across the whole American Modern renters book. Individual premiums depend on where the rental sits, the coverage limits chosen, the deductible and the other rating factors in the company’s filing. A renter with a policy priced near the average would see a premium roughly 12.8 percent lower at renewal, and others will land above or below that figure.
The release is also the work of a single insurer’s filing. It is not an order setting a statewide renters rate, and it does not say that every company writing renters coverage in Florida has cut prices. Other insurers file on their own schedules, and the regulator’s announcement says nothing about how their renters rates are moving. The release as published carries percentages and counts rather than dollar premiums, so no typical monthly or annual saving is stated anywhere in it.
County averages from Orange to Broward
The same release breaks the decrease down by county. Across more than 30 Florida counties, the average decrease runs between 13.1 percent and 13.9 percent. Orange County, home to Orlando, carries an average of 13.4 percent. Broward County, in the Fort Lauderdale area, carries 13.8 percent.
Those county averages sit slightly above the 12.8 percent company-wide average, which suggests a few counties pull the overall figure down. The release does not list which counties those are or what their averages look like, so the full county table would have to come from the filing itself rather than from the announcement.
The September 22 homeowners decreases were a different batch
The renters approval follows an earlier announcement aimed at a different line of insurance. On September 22, the Office of Insurance Regulation announced rate decreases for homeowners policies at five companies: One Alliance North America Insurance Company at 10.4 percent, Safe Harbor Insurance Company at 4.1 percent, Unique Insurance Company at 3.2 percent, Vyrd Insurance Company at 10.4 percent and Kin Insurance at an average of 20 percent in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties. Those four named companies together cover more than 62,000 policies in the release’s accounting.
That September release also set the wider trend. It reported that the average of requests received over the past 30 days was a decrease of 4.8 percent, against a decrease of 1.1 percent a year earlier and an increase of 5.2 percent five years ago. It also counted 48 companies that have requested rate decreases since January 2024, alongside 53 that asked for no change or a 0 percent increase. Commissioner Yaworsky called it “the latest wave of significant rate decreases for Floridians.”
The two announcements cover separate products. The September batch was homeowners coverage; the October 2 approval is HO-4 renters coverage, a different policy form with its own rate filing. The renters cut is therefore not a continuation of the homeowners numbers, and the 12.8 percent belongs only to American Modern’s renters policies.
Where renters can look up rates and ask questions in Florida
Florida runs a set of free consumer tools through its financial services agencies, but not all of them cover renters. The CHOICES rate comparison tool lists comparison searches for automobile insurance, homeowners insurance, Medicare Supplement and small group health insurance, and renters insurance is not among them. A renter trying to compare quotes will need to gather them from insurers or an agent directly.
Rate filings themselves are searchable. The state’s insurance rate filing search gives consumers access to filing information, which is where the underlying American Modern renters filing would sit. For questions or complaints, the consumer help page lists a helpline at 1-877-693-5236, or 850-413-3089 from outside Florida, and an email address at [email protected], all on the state’s consumer services page.
The office’s own press line puts the policy goal plainly. Yaworsky said in the October 2 release that “we are working hard to get rates down for all policies and we will continue to reach out to companies and ask them to do more. Stay tuned!” For American Modern renters in Florida, the verified part of that promise is narrow and concrete: an average 12.8 percent decrease, effective October 11, for new policies and renewals.
Housing costs beyond the renters premium
A lower renters premium trims one line of a tenant’s housing budget, while heating and cooling bills, home repairs and property-tax-linked relief programs sit in other lines the insurance announcement never touches. Some states run a circuit-breaker credit that extends to renters, and the programs differ in who qualifies and when applications open.
The Senior Property Tax & Home-Cost Relief Kit is an 11-page kit that covers the 5 kinds of property-tax relief, the circuit-breaker credit that includes renters, and heating, cooling and home-repair help, with an application log and renewal calendar for tracking each one.
Open The Senior Property Tax & Home-Cost Relief Kit to line up the other housing-cost programs →
This piece was drafted with AI assistance; the figures were checked against the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation’s October 2 and September 22 releases and the state’s consumer pages.
