My Safe Florida Home: Some insurance bills may go up after state-funded upgrades

Florida?s My Safe Florida Home Program

FOX 13's Craig Patrick takes a deep dive into the insurance bills that may go up after state-funded upgrades.

TAMPA - The state covers two-thirds of the cost for certain storm-resilient home upgrades, up to $10,000 per household.

Homeowner Kendall Trosky of Tampa spent thousands on upgrades with the expectation of lower premiums but saw her premium rise instead.

Replacement cost estimators—which insurers do not have to disclose—can push premiums higher after upgrades.

For Trosky and many others pulled out of Citizens Insurance into takeout companies, shopping around for a lower rate isn’t an option. It can leave families paying more despite making state-backed improvements.

We don’t know how insurers calculate replacement costs, since they are not legally required to share their models. Following information requests to the office of Governor DeSantis and Florida’s CFO, we are unable to verify whether most participants in the My Safe Florida Home program actually save money on insurance, as the governor claims.

The backstory:

The My Safe Florida Home Program originally launched in 2006 and was revived in 2022 to help homeowners strengthen their properties against hurricanes. The state promotes it as a way to both protect homes and potentially lower insurance costs.

But in 2021, lawmakers passed a statute banning disclosure of replacement cost calculations for lending purposes, making it harder for homeowners or their lenders to see how changes may be calculated.

"And when people do that (My Safe Florida home upgrades), more often than not, they get a decrease in their insurance premiums," said Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Kendall Trosky, Tampa Homeowner:

"I was told that would allow me to acquire a discount on my insurance premiums. Once I did that, and my policy went to renew, it went up $1,500. I thought, here I improved my house, why am I paying more?"

"It was very coincidental that the statute came out in 2021 and the revival of the My Safe Florida program came out in 2022. I think it’s planned to help the insurance companies raise their premium amounts."

READ: Floridians braces for rising health insurance premiums

What they're saying:

Jeff Brandes, Florida Policy Project:

"They (insurers) weren’t providing a discount for just getting a third of your windows done. They needed to see all of the windows done. Obviously, the insurance is going to have to cover those windows going forward. And therefore, the replacement cost of that house may go up considerably."

"This program hasn’t been audited in the last 15 years. The last audit was in 2010. So, we don’t know how well this program is doing. Nobody knows how well the program is doing or if it’s effective at all. We know that it’s incredibly popular because it’s oversubscribed every year. But when you’re giving out free money, it’s going to be oversubscribed."

What's next:

Lawmakers may face pressure to audit the program or increase transparency in replacement cost calculations. Former Sen. Jeff Brandes suggests phasing out taxpayer grants and replacing them with a sales-tax break on storm upgrades.

Fox 13 is still awaiting data from the Department of Financial Services on whether savings claims hold true. Data request was submitted to the Florida Department of Financial Services (no response as of September 12, 2025).

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