After riding out repeated double-digit increases in their wind coverage for the last four years, the residents of the Old Port Cove Towers expected new roofing would provide something of a safe harbor from another big insurance premium hit.

“I thought we were being conservative by budgeting the same amount (for insurance) as last year,” said Mike Beck, president of the Old Port Towers Condominium in North Palm Beach. “We thought the new roof would actually mean a reduction” in the wind premium.

Instead, when it came time to renew months after Old Port Cove’s two, 20-year-old roofs were replaced last October, the 171-unit North Palm Beach condo association received word that the latest bill of $855,719 would mean it is paying 150% more than it did in 2022 to insure the association’s common property against the wind. And that’s even with an increase in the deductible to repair or replace the 22-story towers’ common property this year. The condo association's total insurance bill is coming to $1.2 million this year. “I don’t know who to blame,” said Beck, 82, sitting in his penthouse unit that offers a view of rocket launches from Cape Canaveral on a clear day. The perfect storm of conditions — on property insurance The reasons Florida’s property owners are paying the highest premiums in the country have been called the perfect storm. It’s the result of myriad factors, including the state’s potential for catastrophic storms, lawsuits resulting from disputed claims and money markets spooked from helping the state’s insurance companies shoulder the risk of those factors.

The Old Port Cove condominium development in North Palm Beach.

Michael Peltier, spokesperson for the nonprofit insurer Citizens Property Insurance Corp., attributes the North Palm Beach association’s premium increases to escalating costs to replace the buildings, one finished in 1979; the other in 1980.

Still, the situation highlights a disconcerting reality for condo owners and boards: If the state’s insurance market for single-family homes is wobbly, the one for condos, particularly older ones, is even shakier, with fewer choices.

People living in condominiums generally pay for two sets of property coverage. One is for coverage of the personal items a condo resident has in their unit, such as their furniture and belongings, through an individual policy with an insurer. The other is the policy their condo association negotiates for the common property, including roofs, that the unit owners pay for through their monthly dues.

It is this latter coverage that has become increasingly costly, and available through fewer insurers.

Out of about 100 insurance companies that cover property in Florida, only seven or eight have lines that cover the common property of the 27,537 condo associations that account for about 1.5 million units in Florida. And for some condos that were built before 2000, residents may be left with just one to three options for companies willing to consider underwriting the common property of their buildings, depending on a number of factors, said Tyler Spaedt, vice president at Valley Insurance Services in West Palm Beach.

Citizens, the state’s insurer of last resort and Florida's largest property insurer, is the only one that will write insurance for the condo that looks out over the Intracoastal Waterway, Beck says.

High-rises are more difficult to insure because of their higher replacement costs than garden-style townhouses, for example. Condos closer to the coast cost more to insure, as do associations with older roofs or that have gone decades without an inspection.

The specter of Surfside building collapse haunts the insurance market

Mark Friedlander, director of corporate communications for the industry-funded Insurance Information Institute, based in Mulvern, Pennsylvania, says the condo insurance problem is not limited to Florida — but that the Surfside condominium disaster in 2021 that killed 98 people when the building collapsed has made the situation worse.

“It is common to see premium increases ranging from 100% to 500%,” Friedlander wrote in an email.

The Surfside disaster brought to light the financial turmoil at the doomed condo as the building's condition continued to deteriorate.

“After Surfside, master condo insurers began to increase their underwriting scrutiny, with many pulling back on the market, particularly for older, oceanside structures,” Friedlander said. “The situation was exacerbated by the significant losses incurred by insurers from the 2022 hurricanes.”

Spaedt, in West Palm Beach, said the increased scrutiny on conditions that increase insurance rates is forcing some condominiums to go into what is known as “sublimited insurance.” That means a condo association will get some wind insurance, but nothing near the replacement cost of the association’s common property.

“A general scenario, you could be facing a situation where the carrier is offering a few million worth of wind coverage for (paying a premium of) six figures,” said Spaedt, who specializes master condo association insurance.

Without insurance for the replacement value of the association’s common property, as required by state law, sales at these condos must be in cash because banks don’t want to lend money for properties at associations insured for less than the replacement value.

Beck said already he’s seeing that the pressure is on for some residents in his condo. They are putting their units up for sale, afraid they can’t afford the continued increases, he says.

Calls to political representatives asking for help have gone unanswered, Beck said.

He said his association is being punished for others’ neglect. It has always made sure that the property was in good repair, and even through the storms of 2004 and 2005, the association has never made an insurance claim.

He's going to be fine, financially, but he wonders where the situation is going to end up. Post-Surfside, condos have also been hit with costs involving getting a study done of their cash reserves and getting structural integrity inspections.

“I’m lucky — I have enough to last to the end of my life,” said the retired auto parts distributor. “I don’t think I’m going to leave my kids a lot, but I've got enough."