Is your insurance carrier dumping you? In Connecticut, you're not alone.

Alexander Soule, The Hour, Norwalk, Conn.Hour

Apr. 21—Some 14,400 Connecticut homeowners were forced to scramble for new property insurance after getting dropped by their carriers in 2023. Parts of the state ranked high nationally for non-renewals of coverage — and not just for homes along Long Island Sound.

Non-renewal notices for homeowners policies spiked 45% from less than 10,000 in 2022, according to numbers provided to CT Insider by the Connecticut Insurance Department. That mirrors a continuing national trend in which carriers are walking away from customers at renewal, rather than risk any big policy claims amid intensifying catastrophic weather, even at higher premiums they are charging to build up reserves.

For now, Connecticut is not in dire straits like Florida, where non-renewals and rocketing premiums continue to force some property owners to go without coverage, according to an analysis by the insurance comparison website ValuePenguin. But in addition to wind storms, wildfire perils and other threats, the insurance sector is now eyeing the Trump administration's tariff war on the likelihood claims costs will rise to cover auto and home repairs. That could push premiums up higher, as underwriters price those costs into future rates.

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Travelers CEO Alan Schnitzer termed any tariff escalation as "pretty manageable for us" while speaking Wednesday on a conference call with investment analysts. Homeowners claims accounted for just 5.9% of claims across all lines of insurance offered by Travelers as of the first quarter.

Schnitzer said he expects U.S. home repair companies to purchase more inventory in the coming weeks as a way to ride out any stretch where prices escalate. He added companies are pressuring building suppliers to keep costs in check, and switching to new suppliers if they find better pricing. Those moves could chip away at the cost of materials for repairs.

"It's just a fraction of auto and property losses that are physical-damage-related — and only a fraction of those are for materials that would be impacted by the tariffs," Schnitzer said Wednesday. "For us, that most notably impacts private passenger auto; from there, the impacts diminish pretty significantly."

Raising the roof on premiums

But earlier this month, State Farm warned its claims costs are being affected by inflation and supplier issues, translating to higher home repair costs.

State Farm had the largest market share among U.S. homeowners insurance carriers in 2024, according to the most recent data from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, at $31.5 billion in premiums for 18.2 percent of the total market. State Farm was followed by Allstate Insurance, USAA, Liberty Mutual, Farmers Insurance, American Family Insurance and Travelers.

Travelers says it has been raising homeowners coverage limits for new policies to accommodate increased costs of repairs, particularly roofing.

Last year, the Connecticut Department of Insurance issued a notice that it was aware of several insurance carriers that were not offering policy renewals due to concerns about the condition of roofs and the possibility of resulting losses.

Insurance industry analyst A.M. Best reported this week that a tariff war would impact carriers beyond claims costs, impacting the investment portfolios on which they depend for profits in addition to underwriting results. Any erosion in stocks or bond values could make them more leery about issuing policies deemed at higher risk for claims.

In a report released at the start of April, the Consumer Federation of America calculated a 16% increase in the average Connecticut homeowners insurance premium between 2021 and 2024, to just over $2,500 last year for $350,000 in replacement coverage of a home. The Consumer Federation of America used premium data from Quadrant Information Systems, which several personal finance websites rely on as well to calculate premium averages for states and municipal areas.

Connecticut's premium inflation was 30th highest nationally, slightly ahead of New York and Massachusetts but behind Rhode Island and New Jersey. Florida policies averaged nearly $9,500 in the Consumer Federation of America analysis, after an increase of more than $2,100 over three years.

In Connecticut, the numbers can swing wildly depending on location and carrier. For $300,000 in coverage, Insurance.com found a range of quotes from $1,370 to $6,430 on the Stamford waterfront using Quadrant data. In Manchester, the range was $1,290 to $4,780 in annual premiums, in quotes assembled this month by Insurance.com using Quadrant data.

Not just a coastal issue

Insurers must give a 60-day notice in Connecticut of any decision not to renew an insurance policy if they deem a property is at increased risk due to insufficient maintenance, or due to additions like a swimming pool or something that could create an increased risk for a fire. The 14,400 non-renewal notices issued by carriers to Connecticut homeowners in 2023 amounted to more than 1.1% of policies in force that year, according to Connecticut Insurance Department data.

A U.S. Senate committee issued a report last December that cited southern New England among the U.S. regions to see significant increases in non-renewal rates over five years through 2023, among counties with more than 10,000 homeowners policies.

Fairfield County ranked 89th nationally for the largest percentage of homeowners getting dropped by their carriers at renewal, at 1.59% of policyholders in 2023, with New Haven County just behind at 1.57%.

And it is not just homeowners in coastal areas searching for new coverage — Litchfield County was among the top 100 in the United States for the biggest increase in non-renewals, after the percentage of homeowners left in the lurch jumped to 1.29% in 2023 from 0.64% five years earlier.

Carriers must file rates with the Connecticut Insurance Department, but with the property and casualty insurance market deemed highly competitive pricing power is in the hands of homeowners who can shop around for a better rate.

Homeowners can turn to the Connecticut Insurance Department for help in resolving any complaints they may have, including if a carrier does not offer a renewal option for coverage. The department logged about 35 complaints in the first 100 days of 2025 for non-renewal of homeowners policies, in line with a year earlier. Of this year's complaints, in just three instances were carrier decisions rescinded by regulators, with a few more tagged as having been "voluntarily reconsidered" by carriers.

For homeowners who get dropped, insurance agents can seek coverage in a "surplus lines" market where carriers typically charge higher rates to take on riskier coverage. Connecticut is among the states offering a Fair Plan as a last-ditch option for homeowners who cannot obtain coverage in the market otherwise.

Between 2018 and 2022, the most recent years with available data, Connecticut Fair Plan policy counts dropped four consecutive years to below 1,200 members, a reduction of nearly 650 policies on the books.