California Homeowners Are Losing Their Insurance—Here’s Why

California Insider

“A lot of people think that insurance carriers are just multi-billion-dollar companies living the good life. That’s not always the case. In the last three to five years, we’ve been losing so much money that we just can’t do this anymore,” says Harry Crusberg, a fire marshal and former president of American Agents Alliance.

Home insurance rates are skyrocketing in California because of fire risks. Join us as we dive into California’s ongoing insurance crisis. We'll explore why insurance companies are dropping policies, leaving homeowners with no options but the costly FAIR Plan, or going without insurance entirely.

“Our first year of fire insurance was $7,000. By the third year, it went up to $12,000, which we could no longer afford. We never imagined putting ourselves in a position where we would own a house without insurance,” says Michael Daneau, a homeowner who lost his second home to fires in six years.

We also speak with state leaders about what they are doing about it.

“The Legislature is taking this issue very, very seriously. ... The cancellation of these insurance policies isn’t just happening to people in high fire-threat areas. For heaven’s sake, I had my own insurance policy canceled,” says Senator Dave Cortese, who’s working on a partial property coverage by insurers to expand options for consumers.

*Views expressed in this video/article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of California Insider.