[MCN] Insurers get started to quit insuring homes for wildfire risk

[Lance Olsen]

Liberty Mutual, other insurers start dropping risky clients
by Lyle Adriano <https://www.insurancebusinessmag.com/us/authors/lyle-adriano-22512/>23 Jul 2018

More homeowners in California could find themselves without insurance for their homes, as insurers continue to pull out of areas vulnerable to wildfires.

In a feature story by The Press Banner, one homeowner who had purchased coverage from Liberty Mutual <https://www.insurancebusinessmag.com/us/companies/liberty-mutual/67020/> some 35 years ago recently found out that the insurer chose not to renew his home insurance policy.

Bob St. Clair received a “notice of non-renewal” from Liberty Mutual <https://www.insurancebusinessmag.com/us/companies/liberty-mutual/67020/> that told him that his home – In the Whispering Pines neighborhood of Scotts Valley – was not only facing increased risk of wildfire but was also difficult for emergency vehicles to access. Therefore, the insurer informed him that it would not be renewing his policy.

“I don’t really blame Liberty Mutual <https://www.insurancebusinessmag.com/us/companies/liberty-mutual/67020/>, it was a business decision, they gave me more than 60 days’ notice and handled it fairly,” St. Clair told The Press Banner. “If I have any advice for other homeowners facing the same situation, it would be to shop around.”

Liberty Mutual <https://www.insurancebusinessmag.com/us/companies/liberty-mutual/67020/> is not the only insurer distancing itself from wildfire-prone homeowners in California; earlier this month, AAA of Southern California announced that it would stop renewing insurance policies of “very high risk” homes <https://www.insurancebusinessmag.com/us/news/catastrophe/ca-insurance-carrier-stops-policy-renewals-for-homes-in-highrisk-areas-104889.aspx> that present the highest exposure to wildfire.

The number of non-renewals among at-risk Californian properties has only increased, a report noted. According to a report by the State Department of Insurance published in December 2017, “there has been a significant increase in insurer initiated non-renewals in the California counties with the highest proportion of homes located in high-risk-for-wildfire areas.”


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“Ten thousand years ago there were between 1 and 5 million people on the planet. There was plenty of room to expand and move, and resources seemed endless.” 

Niles Eldredge. Dominion. 1995. University of California Press.

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“But we need to be clear. The large-scale predicament and the emergent socio-economic stresses that we are beginning to experience … has a lot to do with our human civilization running into limits.”

http://www.resilience.org/stories/2014-03-25/anger-complicity-in-a-time-of-limits

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