2018 and 2019 were horrible years for California Wildfires.
Many lives and structures, vehicles and other property were lost and insurance companies racked up losses like never before. Adding
insult to injury, many of the insurance companies decided it was in their best interest to review their book of business and find areas where they should have less exposure to wildfire losses. The non-renewal notices went out in earnest!
This has created a crisis for Property insurance in many areas of California and especially for Homeowners.
While this is great protection for them, it began to have a severe impact on those policyholders who would no longer have insurance. Not only that, these insured’s would have a really tough time getting a replacement policy. Many insurers use the same third party vendors which provide data, and suddenly it became nearly impossible to get insurance in certain areas. This severe tightening finally caused the California Department of Insurance (DOI) to step in and put a mandatory one year moratorium on non-renewals. The communication has caused confusion as the DOI has called for non-renewals in wildfire areas which is somewhat vague but in other communications has listed specific zip codes.
We have received non-renewals and letters of rescission for some non-renewals and in other cases, we have received non-renewals for policies expiring in 2021. Every situation with each carrier is different, which makes it really difficult to understand who is following the DOI Moratorium as intended. When we contact the various underwriters, they are only able to tell us that they get directives from upper management. Ironically, the directives vary from insurer to insurer, so the interpretation of the DOI communication is in question at this point. Our best advice is that this is a fluid situation and we invite you to contact us with any questions regarding communication you receive, non-renewal notices, and/or any loss control recommendations.
