California Wildfires Causing Insurance Companies to Drop Customers
Several wildfire occurrences have devastated California over the past couple of years and for this reason, numerous insurance companies have started to drop covering thousands of homeowners in the areas affected by these wildfires. This is even if the homeowners wanted to remain insured. The reason behind this is that insurers face a significant challenge with the high risk involved in these areas.
Brush Zone
Brushes can potentially light on fire or fuel a wildfire. Thus, homes located within a brush zone prove to be a great concern for insurers because, in these areas, there is a high risk for a fire to break out. If your home is within an area tagged as a brush zone, then better scout wildfire insurance from Einhorn or other providers that offer a fair plan package to ensure that your home remains protected even if your location is within a high-risk area. Otherwise, your lender may implement a “force-placed insurance policy” which proves to be very costly while offering marginal coverage.
How is a Brush Zone Area Identified?
Insurance carriers consider several factors before tagging an area as a brush zone. One of these factors is the topography of the place, which is the surrounding terrain and landscape of the area. Aside from this, insurance carriers also consider wind patterns. Your home may be in a location wherein wind patterns tend to blow wildfire flames towards your area.
Even the materials that make up your home, particularly what your roof is made of, is also considered by insurance providers. This is because certain roofing materials are more fire-resistant than others. Alongside this, they also consider your distance to a fire station, a fire hydrant, or other water sources. You tend to be in a more favorable condition if you are within a thousand feet away from a fire hydrant.
Insurance Policy Coverage
As much as possible, your home insurance policy must be able to cover your additional living expenses (ALE) even if you are in a high-risk area. This means that it should encompass your dwelling, separate structures, personal property, as well as liability or loss of use. The dwelling category is the amount that you are guaranteed to repair or rebuild your home while separate structures cover your pool, driveway, fences, or barns. The personal property category covers your personal belongings while liability the coverage in case someone gets hurt on your property.
The challenge that insurance providers face is that they need to cover for all these categories even in high-risk areas wherein more people will tend to claim, creating a significant imbalance between their collections and payouts. Thus, to save their business, more and more providers are letting go of their customers.
To wrap things up, because of the climate change that the world is experiencing, wildfire risks increased dramatically over the past years. Thus, aside from seeking ways to properly insure or protect your home, make sure to exert an extra effort to practice a more sustainable way of living to be able to give back to the environment and impede pending disasters. With a little help and effort from everyone, we will be able to make the world a better place to live in.