When Will Home Insurance Companies Start....

[global1]

requesting that Congress work on initiatives to minimize climate change? Seems to me there is a point where all these weather irregularities like tornado's; excessive rainstorms; havoc causing noreasterns, etc begin costing insurance companies too much money. They would either have to raise their premiums or refuse to insure in high risk situations. There is a threshold as well for people paying annual rising premiums.

I got to think insurance companies are beginning to feel the squeeze.

Doesn't it make sense for insurance companies to start lobbying Congress?

[leftofcool]

1. No, they will just stop insuring those disasters.

[Hortensis]

4. Yes. They've been withdrawing from some markets

for some time now. And, of course, raising rates and cutting back coverages offered.

[Warpy]

2. Right now they think they can raise rates in perpetuity

and later on they'll just write weather exclusions into policies the way some do in hurricane country (yes, the roof blew off and the windows blew out but what really wrecked your house was the tidal surge so we won't pay for any of it. You needed flood insurance). They'll just try to figure out how to collect money without paying out.

Yes, I'm a cynic.

[delisen]

3. A wise cynic.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

5. Or they'll lay it all off on the gubmint.

The John stossel can do a special on how stupid the government is for letting him take advantage of cheap insurance

[Wellstone ruled]

6. All one needs to verify this is,

read your Home Owners Policy Updates that you just pitch in the trash. AmFm notified us twice about privacy updates,but buried in the boiler plate was the notice that in your area you might expect to see Premium Increase related to weather related claims. And we live in the Desert were the Sun Wins.

[progree]

7. From USAA - in 2016, members filed more than double the typical number of claims

Full quote (emphasis mine):

"In 2016, many of you faced heartbreaking losses from weather events that were the worst in USAA history. Members filed a record 321,863 claims, more than double the number of catastrophe claims we typically see each year"

[LeftInTX]

8. I think alot of those came from San Antonio - hail damage

USAA has lots of members in SA, including us. (Their headquarters are in SA)

A freak baseball sized hailstorm affected the entire city. It was crazy. Our roof needed replacing, as did probably every house in the city. My husband's truck was totaled.

[progree]

9. Uggh, sounds like a rough year for you. I'm sorry to hear. Good luck!

[Heddi]

11. It's already very difficult to get Homeowner's Ins. in Fl

I live in Clearwater, on the Gulf Coast. We bought our house last year and there is a staggeringly small number of companies that offer homeowners insurance in this state, and those that do tend not to stick around for very long. I have neighbors who every few years find out their coverage ends at the end of the current term b/c their ins. co is leaving the marketplace.

Thankfully, even though we live about 4 miles from the Gulf, and we're less than 1/2 a mile from Tampa Bay, we're considered to be on 'high ground," as far as Florida goes, and we were at a Home Show a few months ago (after we had already bought the house, homeowners, wind coverage and flood), and a guy from FEMA and some local agency put in our address and thankfully we are out of a flood zone and even in "worst case scenario" we wouldn't suffer any flooding. It was reassuring to see, but we still get that flood insurance though. $400 a year pays for a lot of piece of mind.

At any rate -- insurance companies will just do in other areas what they do in florida -- leave high-risk areas and give homeowners in those areas fewer and fewer (and more expensive and more expensive) options for insurance.