An insurance company that specializes in writing mobile home policies is asking state regulators to approve a policy rate increase of 109.9 percent.

Safeway Property Insurance Co., based in Gainesville, with corporate headquarters in Chicago, is scheduled to have its case for raising rates heard by the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation on Sept. 21.

The company had 2,702 policies in force in Manatee County and another 2,654 in Sarasota County as of June 30, according to the Office of Insurance Regulation.

With roughly 48,000 mobile home policies in force in the state, Safeway is one of the few remaining companies willing to insure mobile homes in storm-prone Florida.

Aside from Safeway, most of the mobile home insurance business has been assumed by Citizens Property Insurance Corp., the state's insurer of last resort.

"Insurance companies don't care," Howey said. "They'd probably put me under the jailhouse if I went up 109 percent on my rent. I don't think there's many folks who are even going to be able to afford insurance anymore."

Frank Williams, executive director of the Florida Manufactured Housing Association, said he was surprised by the amount of increase Safeway was requesting.

Williams said he would be particularly surprised if the increase applied to mobile homes built since 1994, when the Department of Housing and Urban Development established stricter construction requirements for manufactured housing in the wake of Hurricane Andrew, which struck two years earlier.

"I understand that everyone's treating the coastal counties like they have the plague, but it just depends on what types of business (Safeway) is writing," Williams said. "I think it would be outlandish for (newer) homes."

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