Nationwide working to limit damage from California wildfires
As massive wildfires wreak havoc again in
The Columbus-based insurer does business in
It is working with homeowners to reduce the risk of fires. Those who don’t comply with the instructions risk losing Nationwide as an insurer.
“Nationwide continues to carefully manage its property portfolio in states where wildfire exposure is prevalent,” spokesman
“For the past several years, we have proactively inspected homes to ensure members take appropriate steps to mitigate their property against the risk of wildfires. If they do not take these steps, we will not continue coverage.”
Steps include spacing trees on the property, preventing birds from building nests on clay-roof tiles, removing dead vegetation, cutting dead limbs from trees and not planting trees and other vegetation close to the home.
“Recently, a member near one of the wildfires in northern
The
“We are not at a crisis point yet, but you can see where the trends are going,” California Insurance Commissioner
There are nearly 20 fires burning across the state with 20,000 people under evacuation orders.
Insurance Commissioner Jones told the AP he expects more insurance companies to opt not to renew policies or to simply stop writing homeowners policies in areas with the highest fire risk.
Hardgrove said Nationwide implemented a rate increase in March that was submitted to the state before last year’s fires.
The problem is most pronounced in high-risk fire areas. In the 24
Insurers dropped more than 10,000 policies in those counties in 2016.
Consumers may also get frustrated when they find out their policies will not be renewed or cannot find coverage easily.
“We do have a healthy market and we do have insurance available,” said
Last year’s wildfires in
State law prohibits all of an insurer’s catastrophic losses from being passed on to consumers at one time. So the impact on rates may come over several years.
Information from The Associated Press was included in this story.
@BizMarkWilliams
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