Farmers Insurance limits California homeowners' policies

Citing inflation and California's fires and severe weather, Farmers Insurance announced it is limiting homeowner policies in the state. Da Lin reports. (7-7-23)

[garyjones]

I agree with other comments that if the insurance business in Cal is so profitable, then why aren't Harvey Rosenfield and everyone eagerly entering the business and offering affordable insurance instead of complaining? It is a safe bet that if insurance companies are greedy AND writing new policies makes them a lot of $$$ then the insurance companies would be signing up new customers. Not wanting new customers is a sure tell they aren't making money on the policies.

[espnmk]

i would build my own home now if city's would let us build without regulations (permits) now that insurances don't want to cover us.

[paulbegley]

Well not all people remove the fire hazards like brush and trees. But city's don't make it easy to cut trees.

[ricardcluter]

If insurance companies were making money, hand over fist, why would they be pulling out or limiting the number of policies issued?

[ronaldmcdonald]

When entire towns burn, profits go down
When cars get broken into over and over....
When shoplifting occurs over and over....

[TheHouseofSniffers]

It's more expensive for everything this year. Policies matter. Keep voting with feelings and crazy is what you get.

[petenrita]

Fair plan sounds like Obamacare. “At least you have coverage”

[gendokar]

Can you also cover how business insurance is going up in the bay area, and how if u had a breakin it can easily double or triple of they don't just cancel you. And good luck getting an in state company to ensure you at all after you have been dropped.

[bk]

It is because the home price is rising too much. It is more than the wage and insurance cost.

[jimflash]

I wonder how much the insurance companies have paid out in California in the last 5 years?

[henryc]

2:10 If there is so much money to be made Harvey Rosenfield should start his own insurance company.

[mencken]

OK, let’s say the state regulators stand pat, what’s left except for disaster-prone states like FL and CA to go “single payer?” The problem is that state insurance is no way out. Rates will inevitably rise, along with intense political pressure to keep rates down. Will a state insurance bureaucracy be more efficient than the private insurance industry? The result is likely to take the same direction as the Federal flood insurance program- prohibiting construction or reconstruction in vulnerable areas, or declining to cover such areas. And maybe that is for the best. I pay a small fraction of the premium of the lady in the video- but that is based on risk, which is what drives all insurance coverage. We live in an area where there is little likelihood of earthquakes or floods, none from wildfires, hurricanes, tsunamis, etc. we do suffer from intense thunderstorms that cause wind damage, and these can bring tornadoes. But the damage from these weather events is much more limited than those listed earlier. Should everyone be lumped into a common pool? I fail to see why I should share the risk with someone who builds a home on a crumbling Malibu cliff or on a offshore island. There is no easy way out of this situation.

[opstwde]

We left CA for several reasons, one being that we had two non-renewals in the past five years. We did not want the be forced into the so called California "Fair" Plan.

[jonathancisneros]

Next thing you know auto insurances are gonna get affected

[trackday]

No big trees around? Seriously? Big trees (with no branches <20') are pretty damn safe in a fire. Perhaps CBS should have done actual journalism and looked at CalFire safety recommendations. Lady, all those shrubs RIGHT NEXT TO YOUR HOUSE catching fire from floating embers half mile or a mile from the fire line and getting sucked into the vents of your old house is what is going to screw you. Not large trees nearby. I have little sympathy for such owners.

[bishopcorva]

"But companies are just being greedy!"

The companies exist to make money, not underwrite bad choice after bad choice after bad choice. Since California has a very strong record of wildfires in which whole swaths of area is turned to ashes. Fire loss insurance is elevated for the state as a whole. Houses that are rebuilt in areas that fairly regularly get burned are more expensive to insure with more limited coverage of what would be replaced or just written off as lost.

Couple the desire to be environmentally friendly, the state and local governments refusing to cut down under brush, thin out dead trees, punishing homeowners that do such with fines and lawsuits from environmental groups. Just makes the issue of fires that much more incendiary, for no pun intended.

It's why California is also known as 'Tinder-fornia', as in fire tinder that helps accelerate the speed and growth of a fire. Since it seems that if you stare at dry grass out there hard for any length of time, it'll just combust into flame.

Want to have lower fire insurance? Get the state to let go of this hippie idea that letting nature be wild* is a good thing, and that it's better to not thin out dead, overstressed, sticky easily burned undergrowth. Rather than oh, letting nature actually be wild with regular burning fires that clear out dead and over grown areas of under brush thatch. It's the reason why after an area does get catastrophic fires and rains do come, suddenly landslide. Because the fire burned *EVERYTHING* instead of flash burning past what is resistant to fire, leaving it scorched but still alive to hold the soil. Nope, fire burned so hot it cooked the ground which killed everything, even the resistant stuff, now nothing is left to hold the soil from erosion. What comes back fastest? Weeds and basically ornamental or invasive species of plants that make more thatch to dry out and never get cut by the state because of reasons. Oh look, thirty years on now, another devastating fire because of state actions. But it's all the fault of insurance companies, right.

The residents voted for the very people that are responsible for the same problem being harped about here but no one seems to be putting two and two together. They only want to listen to the fast talker saying you can have as much cake as you want, eat it to and we'll make sure to force companies to not limit your access to cake.

[steveec]

Farmers insurance is in trouble financially customers need to pull out not Farmers insurance, they also write their claim checks from Bank of America

[jillbelas]

Cut more trees down and limit brush overgrowth. Limit building of houses in fire prone areas.

[Dflowen]

3:00 - Farmers, All State and State Farm - account for 21% of the insurance market - the other 79%? Will they insure at a better price. FAIR plan is scummy move. I bet the state does kick back to the private insurance companies when they get one signed up.

[SFPhilo]

Interesting that the FAIR Plan doesn't get the rate increase denials that the private insurers get.