Anyone wanting to voice an opinion for the record on the insurance industry’s request to raise homeowner rates, notably by 30 percent on the coast, has until tomorrow to do so.
The N.C. Department of Insurance (DOI) issued a reminder Thursday that it will, until Oct. 19, consider written comments sent to [email protected] or NCDOI, Attn: Bob Mack, Property & Casualty Division, 1201 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, N.C.27699-1201.
DOI said more than 3,900 comments were on file as of Thursday.
The comment-submission period is essentially an extension for anyone who couldn’t attend Wednesday’s public hearing on the N.C. Rate Bureau’s request to raise homeowner insurance rates by a statewide average of 17.7 percent. Affecting new or renewed policies, the change is meant to take effect June 1, 2013, though DOI may decrease or deny it.
DOI counted approximately 30 people who made statements in person during the hearing, held in Raleigh, including Cameron Moore of the N.C. Business Alliance for a Sound Economy. “We unequivocally believe that the proposed rate increases by the North Carolina Rate Bureau along coastal North Carolina are in fact excessive, inadequate, and unfairly discriminatory,” Moore, the group’s governmental affairs director, stated for the record.
The coastal territory is the state’s most exposed to hurricanes, notes the filing from the Rate Bureau, whose risk models suggested the 30 percent rate-increases for beach counties like New Hanover, Brunswick and Pender.
If approved as filed, a $75,000 policy on an area beach home would rise in cost from the current $1,522 to $1,979. On an inland home, the current rate of $1,050 would rise to $1,365.
The Brunswick County Association of Realtors (BCAR) is among groups saying coastal North Carolina already pays two to three times more than inland counties for the same homeowner insurance, while 32 counties pay as much or less than they did in 1993. Since that time, this area’s costs have risen 163 percent, Wilmington Regional Association of Realtors Governmental Affairs Director Kathleen Riely told the Wilmington City Council on Tuesday.
A BCAR mailing on Thursday added that, according to 2008 industry numbers, statewide losses over a five-year period hit $2.47 billion, of which the coastal counties only claimed $259 million.
Click here for a story about the Rate Bureau’s filing.
“The rate filing will be reviewed by Department of Insurance experts to determine what, if any, rate adjustments are warranted. If the Department of Insurance and North Carolina Rate Bureau cannot agree on rate changes, (DOI) Commissioner (Wayne) Goodwin will call for a formal hearing in which both parties would present their cases for any rate adjustments,” DOI’s press release explained.
The Rate Bureau’s filing is viewable here.
Contact Ben Brown at [email protected] or (910) 772-6335. On Twitter: @benbrownmedia
