Citizens December 2026 Form Changes in Sunny Isles Beach: Wind Coverage, Flood Proof, and Short-Term Rentals

Monday morning, October 5, the National Hurricane Center’s 8 a.m. EDT Atlantic outlook finally had a Gulf map to talk about. Forecaster Kelly described a trough of low pressure in the southwestern Gulf of America producing disorganized showers and thunderstorms. Formation chance through 48 hours: low, 30 percent. Through seven days: high, 70 percent. A tropical depression is likely to form during the middle or latter portion of the week, drifting eastward before turning northward. No coastal watches. No named storm. The next Atlantic name is still Isaias. Eight named storms — Arthur through Hanna — and still zero hurricanes. AccuWeather’s latest-first-hurricane marker, October 8, 1905, is three days from this morning.

That is the weather. The paperwork that actually changed last week is not a cone. On October 1, Citizens Property Insurance Corporation posted that the Office of Insurance Regulation had approved updates to personal-lines policy forms, effective for new and renewal business as of December 1, 2026. Two of those updates matter on a barrier island in ZIP 33160. First: if Florida law requires you to keep flood insurance as a condition of Citizens wind coverage, and that flood is not in force at the required level on the date of a wind loss, Citizens may provide no coverage for the wind-related loss. Second: listing the house — or the unit — to short-term guests more than three times in a calendar year is written into the Business definition.

This is not a rewrite of Citizens’ $400,000 flood mandate and the 2027 remaining phase-in. That guide is about having to buy flood to keep the wind policy. This one is about what the December 1 form does if the flood you already bought is not there when the wind claim arrives. It is also not a rewrite of the October 20 takeout / October 5 choice-deadline guide. Today is that choice deadline for anyone who still has an open Offer Form. Register the choice on the packet. Then read the December 1 forms against whichever company actually writes the renewal.

King tides have not left. The South Florida Water Management District’s east-coast window of September 24 through October 15 is still open. Miami-Dade’s enhanced tidal forecast still lists October 7–13, with the highest predicted tide around October 10. The east-coast annual peak remains October 27, inside the October 22–November 12 window. Those tides are a flood claim. A Gulf depression that never reaches 74 mph can still put wind-driven rain against a west-of-Collins house. The December 1 forms are how Citizens is telling you not to mix those files.

The Mandate vs. the December 1 Condition

Sunny Isles Beach sits in Miami-Dade’s High-Velocity Hurricane Zone, on a barrier island between Golden Beach and Haulover Inlet. Houses and low-rise attached homes west of Collins Avenue, and in adjoining 33180, are the buildings that typically carry a Citizens HO-3 or dwelling form with wind. High-rises along Collins Avenue (A1A) are usually HO-6 unit policies beside an association master policy.

Those are two different failures. Missing the mandate packet can lead to nonrenewal of the Citizens wind policy. Letting flood lapse after Citizens already verified it can, on a December 1 form, leave you with a wind deductible and no wind check — on a house that still has a hurricane percentage deductible on the declarations page. Review how wind, surge, and flood split on a Sunny Isles Beach claim before you treat a quiet October as permission to cancel flood and “buy it back later.”

What the Declarations Page Will Say

Citizens’ October 1 bulletin quotes the new declarations flood-coverage statement in full. It is worth reading once without a broker’s paraphrase:

If you are required to secure and maintain flood insurance as a condition of coverage with us under Florida law, this Policy may not provide coverage for any wind related losses when a wind loss occurs during the Policy period for which we have verified that you have flood insurance at the time your Policy was issued or renewed and flood insurance was not in force at the level of coverage required by Florida law on the date of the wind loss.

“May not provide coverage for any wind related losses” is the sentence. Not “we will send a reminder.” Not “we will nonrenew next year.” The trigger is a verified flood policy at issue or renewal that is not in force, at the required level, on the date of the wind loss. For dwelling policies, that required level is generally the Citizens dwelling limit, or the maximum NFIP amount you are eligible for if the federal cap is lower — $250,000 dwelling in the Regular Program. A private or supplemental flood policy can fill a house above that cap; see how NFIP caps, waiting periods, and private flood compare in 33160. The National Flood Insurance Program’s typical 30-day waiting period is unchanged. Canceling flood on October 5 because the Gulf is only a trough does not get you a bound NFIP policy for a mid-week depression.

This declarations update does not apply to HO-4, HO-6, HW-4, HW-6, or DW-6. If you rent a Collins Avenue unit, or own one on an HO-6, the new wind-for-flood sentence is not your form. It is the house west of Collins, and many townhomes and dwellings that carry Citizens wind, that need the calendar reminder.

The 14-Day Authorization Is a Wind Condition

Citizens is not only asking you to keep flood. It is asking for permission to see the flood file. Under Section I Duties After Loss, a condition requires the insured, upon request, to sign and return the Authorization To Release Flood Insurance Documents And Information. Under the new Flood Insurance condition, if Citizens or a representative delivers that authorization, you have 14 days from the date of delivery to return the signed form. Failure to return it may preclude coverage under the policy for any wind loss.

Those duties do not apply to HO-4, HO-6, HW-4, and HW-6. They do apply to the HO-3 and similar dwelling forms that already sit inside the statutory flood mandate. A snowbird who homesteaded in the Northeast and forwards mail slowly should treat the 14-day clock as a reason to keep a Florida contact on the file — occupancy, PIP, and vacant versus unoccupied questions are a separate seasonal-resident stack, but a missed authorization is a wind-claim stack.

Practical steps before a December 1 renewal, or before a Gulf system has a name:

• Confirm flood is in force at the required limit. Match the flood declarations to the Citizens dwelling limit, or to the NFIP maximum you can buy. A $400,000 Coverage A house with a $150,000 NFIP dwelling limit is not automatically “in force at the level required.”
• Keep CIT FW01 current. The 12 26 edition is amended to say you will maintain flood through this term and any renewal. Do not sign it and then cancel flood in May.
• Return the authorization in 14 days. Photograph the signed form. If you are north of 33160 when it arrives, have someone who can sign under a power of attorney, or overnight it yourself. Silence is not a coverage grant.
• Do not wait out a named storm to restart flood. NFIP’s 30-day wait, and a private-flood wait that is often 10–15 days, both start when you bind — not when the NHC raises a 70 percent seven-day number.

Wind-Driven Rain Is a Notice, Not a Flood Policy

Citizens is adding a Wind-Driven Rain Damage Important Notice, WDR1 12 26, to all new and renewal personal residential packages that include wind coverage. A notice is not a new insuring agreement. It is a flag that rain pushed by wind through a failed opening is a different conversation from water that rises from Biscayne Bay, Indian Creek, or Collins Avenue during a king tide.

Opening protection, roof-to-wall clips, and secondary water resistance still belong on the OIR-B1-1802 wind-mitigation file. They do not insure storm surge. They do not insure sunny-day flooding on October 10. A homestead west of Collins that still qualifies for a My Safe Florida Home inspection or grant can harden the envelope and still need a flood policy that stays in force if Citizens is the wind carrier. Windows are not a flood policy. A notice in the packet is not one either.

Short-Term Rentals: Three Listings Is the New Line

The same December 1 package rewrites how Citizens treats home-sharing. This part is not an HO-6 exemption. Changes to the Business definition apply to the HO-3, HO-4, HO-6, and HO-8 base policy forms. Section II’s Business exclusion is amended to match: the policy does not provide coverage when the insured location is rented or leased to guests more than three times in a calendar year for periods of less than 30 days or one calendar month, whichever is less, or is held out to the public as a place regularly rented to guests.

Guests of a home-sharing occupant are expressly excluded from the definitions of Roomer, Boarder, Tenant, or Guest. Personal-liability forms used with some dwelling products add definitions for home-sharing host activities, home-sharing network platform, and home-sharing occupant, and they exclude bodily injury to a home-sharing occupant. Withdrawn day-care endorsements are not a coverage change; Citizens points agents back to the base-form business exclusions.

For a Sunny Isles Beach owner, the split is local:

• A furnished seasonal house that sits empty is still vacant versus unoccupied, Florida PIP if the car comes south, and flood while you are north. That is the snowbird file. It is not, by itself, a listing.
• A Collins Avenue unit on a booking calendar more than three times a year, for stays under 30 days, is now written as a business use on the HO-6 form Citizens will issue on or after December 1. Association rules, City of Sunny Isles Beach short-term-rental registration, and a landlord or commercial policy are the coverage conversation — not an assumption that “guest” still means your cousin.
• Holding the address out as regularly rented can trip the exclusion even if you have not yet closed four stays. A live listing is the public holding-out.

If the board already restricts rentals, the form change does not rewrite the declaration. If you have been treating an HO-6 as a de facto Airbnb policy, December 1 is when that reading gets harder. Start a condo quote or homeowners quote with the actual occupancy — seasonal, owner-occupied, or listed — rather than the occupancy you used on last year’s application.

Other December 1 Changes Worth a File Note

The bulletin is not only flood and rentals. Alternative dispute resolution is amended on all personal-lines base forms so either the insured or Citizens may submit a request to the Division of Administrative Hearings if the appraisers fail to agree on the amount of the loss, and either party may ask a DOAH judge — or, if DOAH declines, a judge of a court of record — to choose an umpire. A new Attorney Fee Reporting endorsement, CIT 03 16 12 26, will attach to new and renewal policies and specifies what the insured, claimant, or attorney must give Citizens when a claim is settled for a single amount that includes indemnity plus attorney fees and costs. Privacy notices PNMPR-7 12 26 and PNW-7 12 26 update why Social Security numbers are collected. None of that replaces reading the 12-26 editions. Agents are told to review the full forms and the Required Document Guide; this page is a local reading of the public bulletin, not the policy jacket.

If a takeout company assumes the policy on October 20, you will not be on a Citizens 12-26 form at all — you will be on that company’s form. Compare flood conditions, rental definitions, hurricane deductibles, and loss-assessment limits before you treat a lower estimated premium as the whole file. The 20% rule and the October 5 choice deadline are still the takeout guide. The December 1 Citizens language is what remains if you stay, or if a later 2026 round leaves you at Citizens through a December renewal.

What to Do This Week in 33160

A 70 percent seven-day Gulf number is not a Florida hurricane. It is also not a reason to ignore a form that takes effect on the next renewal after December 1. For a house on Citizens wind in Sunny Isles Beach:

• Pull the flood declarations and confirm the limit still matches what Citizens required at the last issue or renewal. If it does not, bind the correction before a waiting period and a named storm overlap.
• If an authorization to release flood documents is in the mail, sign it within 14 days. Do not wait for the king tide window that starts October 7.
• If today is still your takeout choice deadline, register the choice on the Offer Form. Then ask whether the assuming company uses a similar flood-maintenance condition.
• If the property is listed for stays under 30 days, count the 2026 calendar. Four stays, or a live “regularly rented” listing, is a business-exclusion question on the December 1 HO-3 and HO-6 forms.
• If the building is a Collins Avenue tower, confirm you are on HO-6 before you panic about the wind-for-flood sentence — and still buy flood for surge and contents if that is the exposure you actually have.

If you want a local reading of a Citizens renewal, a takeout worksheet, or whether a 33160 occupancy is still a personal-lines risk, start a quote request or contact the agency. A quote request does not bind coverage. Coverage exists only when an insurer issues it. Citizens’ bulletin is an overview; the 12-26 policy forms control.