Is Your Florida Rental a Primary Residence?

Under Florida law, a rental property counts as a primary residence for Citizens when it is the primary home of the tenant and they occupy it more than nine months of the year. You do not have to live in it yourself. Which side of that line your property falls on sets the ceiling on how much your premium can rise at renewal.

Most landlords in Miami have never heard of the test, and nobody fills it in for them.

What the statute actually says

Fla. Stat. 627.351(6)(n) defines it in one sentence: a primary residence is "the dwelling that is the policyholder's primary home or is a rental property that is the primary home of the tenant, and which the policyholder or tenant occupies for more than 9 months of each year."

The second half of that sentence is the part that surprises people. Your tenant's living arrangement, not yours, decides the classification. An annual lease sits on one side of the line. A seasonal rental, a snowbird arrangement or a short-term listing sits on the other.

Why the classification sets your renewal ceiling

Citizens calls it the glide path, and the ceiling is not the same on both sides of the line.

• Primary residence: the annual increase is capped at 15% for 2026.
• Non-primary residence: up to 50% above the prior year's established rate.

Fla. Stat. 627.351(6)(n).

Same building, same renewal, more than three times the headroom on one side of a line your tenant draws.

What this does not mean

These are ceilings, not forecasts. They describe the most Citizens is permitted to charge, not what it intends to charge.

Citizens' 2026 recommended rate filing lowers statewide personal lines rates by 2.6% on average after capping, and homeowners multiperil by 4.8%. So the point of this article is not that a 50% increase is coming. The point is that the classification is applied by default, and the default is the one that costs you more.

This article also does not cover what your policy pays when a claim happens. Classification affects your premium, not your coverage. A different question, worth asking in the same conversation, is whether the policy still covers what it did last year: Florida requires a specific letter before an insurer may cut it. See the letter your insurer must send.

What counts as proof

Citizens does not infer the classification from your address or your intentions. It needs a document.

For a rented property, that is a lease agreement executed within the last twelve months, for a term of more than nine months, and the documentation has to confirm the property is the tenant's primary residence.

For an owner-occupied home the accepted documents include a homestead exemption, a voter registration card, a redacted Florida driver's licence or ID card, redacted military orders, a vehicle registration, or a signed affidavit on a new purchase.

One item is no longer on the list. In a bulletin dated February 6, 2024, Citizens stated that utility bills are no longer acceptable proof of primary residency — the reason being that an out-of-state policyholder's utility bill still shows the property address.

Without that proof on file before your renewal, Citizens calculates the premium using the non-primary capping factor. Not as a penalty — simply because nothing in the file says otherwise.

Frequently asked questions

Do I have to live in the property for it to be a primary residence? No. The statute allows either the policyholder's primary home or a rental that is the tenant's primary home, occupied more than nine months a year.

Does a six-month lease count? No. The test is more than nine months of occupancy in each year, so a lease that runs six months does not meet it on its own.

What about a property I rent out on Airbnb? A short-term listing is not the primary home of any one tenant, so it falls on the non-primary side. Short-term rental also raises separate licensing questions that have nothing to do with Citizens.

I already renewed at the non-primary rate. Is it too late? Ask. The classification is a fact about the property, and a file can be corrected. Bring the lease.

What to do next

Send us your declarations page and the current lease, and we will tell you which side of the line the property is on and whether the file supports it. If you also carry coverage on your own home, it is worth checking both at once — homeowners insurance and condo insurance are classified under the same statute.