As California Burns, Homeowners Insurance Is Getting Harder To Obtain

My home in St. Albans, Vermont is not prone to wildfires and
not in a flood plain or coastal area. Still, as weather disasters,
many of them driven by climate change, get worse,
my and everybody else's insurance rates could go up. 

A good chunk of California, especially in the southern parts of the state near heavily populated Los Angeles and San Diego, are under fire alerts again today and tomorrow.    

Strong, dry winds and an ongoing drought are making things dangerous. This at a time of year when the winter rains should be starting to move in. There's little sign of rain for at least a week out there, probably more. 

This new, seemingly never ending California fire season is consistent with climate change. We've been warned about this for years.

The problem isn't just the immediate risk of fires.  Many homeowners are having difficulty obtaining insurance, or are at least paying more for it, because of the increasing dangers and increasing expense of wildfires. 

In some of the most fire prone areas of California, state regulators are seeing an increase in insurance coverage that's not being renewed by insurance companies.  That obviously exposes these homeowners to extreme financial risk. 

According to the Sacramento Bee:

"Carriers sent non-renewal notices to 42,088 homeowners in the foothill counties in 2019, compared to 23,925 the year before (California) Deputy Insurance Commissioner Bryant Henley announced Monday. Almost every one of these homeowners had to buy replacement coverage from the state's "insurer of last resort," the FAIR Plan, often at prices double or triple what they were paying before."

More strict building codes might help. It'll make houses more insurable, but also more expensive to build. Such requirements would mean houses would need fire resilient roofs and siding, along with other improvements. 

 This kind of insurance problem will spread amid climate change. As coastal areas become more prone to flooding due to sea level rise and more intense storms, coverage of coastal properties will be more difficult to obtain and more expensive. 

You have to wonder what kind of ripple effect this might have across the entire insurance industry.  Your home might not be at particular risk from wildfires or flooding, but will your insurance rates go up because of the increasing cost of disasters, many of them climate related?

Renters could be affected to.  Your landlord might pass on the cost of higher insurance to their tenants. 

It's another example of how nobody is truly immune from the effects of climate change.