North Carolina insurance companies are proposing to raise homeowner insurance rates by an average of 30 percent for both the beaches and inland areas in New Hanover, Pender and Brunswick counties.
The figures were contained in a filing Monday by the N.C. Rate Bureau, an industry organization that serves as insurance companies? collective bargainer with the N.C. Department of Insurance.
The average statewide increase is 17.7 percent, according to the filing, which appeared on the organization?s website.
The state rarely grants all that the insurers ask for, however.
And this year, thanks to a new state law, the public will have a chance to comment before a decision is made.
A 30-percent increase would mean that the base premium on the beaches for $200,000 in coverage, which now is $2,875 a year, would rise to $3,738, according to Ray Evans, Rate Bureau general manager.
On the mainland for the three counties, the base rate of $1,983 now would increase to $2,578.
Rates in general are going up for two reasons, Evans said Tuesday.
?Hurricane exposure is the gorilla in the background, although other claims costs are increasing at a fast clip? throughout the country, he said, referring to non-hurricane events like tornadoes, fire and theft.
Another large factor is the cost of reinsurance ? where insurers are insured. That has gone up 65 percent since 2009, Evans said.
?This is a statewide issue with significant coastal implications with impacts on inland homeowners as well as those with beachfront property,? said Tyler Newman, governmental affairs director for Business Alliance for a Sound Economy, or BASE, a Wilmington-based lobbying group.
?It?s incredibly frustrating to continue to get homeowners insurance increases for the same policies that are three or four times higher than the same policies in the interior part of the state, and they cover the same types of perils.
?On top of that coastal homeowners have to pay separate wind policies,? Newman said.
The Department of Insurance has 50 days to respond to the filing by approving it, calling for public hearings or negotiating rates with the Rate Bureau, said Kathleen Riely, governmental affairs director for the Wilmington Regional Association of Realtors.
?Legislation passed earlier this year mandates that the commissioner call a public comment period on any Rate Bureau rate filing.
?This is the first rate filing since the legislation was passed,? Riely said.
the pitch brandon inge freedom tower freedom tower eric church world trade center quick silver
No comments:
Post a Comment