Manufactured home residents in Taunton, area fed up with rising insurance costs

BOSTON -- Nancy Fitzgerald's homeowner's insurance premiums were steady for decades. But between 2022 and 2024 she saw her bill rise by $961 per year.

When Fitzgerald asked her insurer, Foremost, why her bill was rising, they cited disasters happening across the country, which aren't relevant to what's happening in Massachusetts, she told lawmakers Tuesday.

Fitzgerald lives in Colonial Estates, a resident-owned manufactured home community in Taunton. Manufactured homes are built in a factory and then placed on a plot of land. Often, residents will own the home and rent the land it sits on. Residents of manufactured and mobile homes are usually seniors on a fixed income or low-income individuals and families who are priced out of other homeownership options.

Recently, manufactured home residents have noticed their homeowners insurance bills skyrocket by as much as 34% to 70% in a few years, Fitzgerald said.

"The fear of losing insurance or having inadequate coverage creates anxiety and there's a lack of transparency and advocacy for seniors," Fitzgerald, who is also a member of Taunton Manufactured Home Communities Group, said during a Financial Services Committee hearing.

She supported a bill from Taunton Sen. Kelly Dooner (S 2738) that would create a commission to study rising homeowner's insurance costs for manufactured and mobile home residents and to recommend policy solutions to improve affordability, coverage, and market stability. The commission would get a year to finish its work.

There are about 430 manufactured home parks in the state, according to Kathee Cyr, with the Manufactured Home Federation of Massachusetts, Inc.

The bill has bipartisan support and is co-sponsored by Taunton Mayor Shaunna O'Connell, who said insurance worries are a top concern that she hears from residents of manufactured and mobile homes.

"Over the past few years, these residents have been coming to us on a regular basis, really begging for help because they have faced these significant and unsustainable, unsustainable increases in their insurance, extremely limited coverage options or outright denial of coverage because of the type of housing that they own," O'Connell told lawmakers. "So, they come to us for help, and we really have no answer for them."

Rep. Lisa Field (D-Taunton) said a commission could come up with some solutions.

"For many of my constituents, they don't know what to do," Fields said. "They just can't afford the high insurance policy policy costs. On top of everything else, some are no longer insured because they can't afford it. Not being able to ensure your home or your belongings is unacceptable."

Larry Quintal, a Taunton city councilor, said residents' annual insurance costs rise anywhere from $700 and $1,500 even if they don't file any claims or make changes in their homes.

The issue is compounded by a shrinking number of insurers willing to cover manufactured homes. Out of the 70 insurers in the state, 14 offer manufactured home coverage, but a majority of those homes are covered by just two insurers, Quintal said. And insurers are actively withdrawing from the market.

"Manufactured homeowners are vulnerable," Quintal said. "When insurance premiums skyrocket, they are effectively trapped, forced to choose between paying more than they can afford or risking going uninsured."

Fitzgerald said Foremost, an affiliate of Farmers Insurance Group, no longer covers manufactured homes in certain communities and has indicated it is not renewing existing policies. Foremost did not respond to the News Service's request for comment Tuesday.

She said Assurant and American Modern are the two main insurers for manufactured and mobile homes in the state. Neither insurer responded to the News Service's request for comment Tuesday.

Other coverage options include the Massachusetts FAIR Plan -- often referred to as the insurer of last resort -- which provides basic property insurance for those who couldn't get coverage in the competitive market. But Fitzgerald said this plan offers "bare bones coverage" and with some manufactured homes valued at $200,000 or more, residents could be underinsured.

Dooner said some mobile and manufactured homes are selling for $500,000 or more. Also, if a resident on the FAIR Plan has a mortgage on their property they would have to add another insurance provider on their manufactured or mobile home to get adequate coverage.

She said the goal of the bill is to gather experts and officials to solve the issue.

"My goal with this commission was really to bring the experts to the table and just kind of get a working group going to really try and just tackle these challenges, figure out a path forward, because right now, it's unsustainable," Dooner said.

Taunton City Council President Barry Sanders also spoke in support of the bill and suggested adding a resident of a manufactured home community as a member of the commission.

The committee's Senate chair, Paul Feeney, D-Foxboro, expressed his support for the measure and noted that Taunton and Attleboro have been aligned on addressing affordability issues in mobile home communities.

"This is a smart way to address some of those costs through insurance," Feeney said. "So appreciate you leading on this, and I know we're going to work together to make sure we're taking care of these folks."