Now What To Do for Home Insurance

The horrendous wildfires of Southern California may just trigger a horrible insurance wreckening. Or the system may do just fine - its uncler at the moment. What is clear is that every week its harder to find home insurance here in the San Francisco Bay Area of California.

First off our hearts go out to those that have been hit by the raging wildfires in Southern California and hats off to all of the fire and emergency professionals helping to calm the fires.

Up here in Northern California - we have certainly seen what wildfire damage can do. The smoke, the flames, the lack of a place to live, the destroyed personal property. And the sad loss of life.

Second, My agency really does NOT suggest changing admitted insurers at the present moment. [There are some exceptions to this, but they are few.] In general - if you have a State Farm, Allstate, Farmers, Etc insurance policy - Keep it. Even if you find a quote that has a lower premium - you woud still have to pass a Post Bind Inspection and its just not worth the risk.

But what to do if you get nonrenewed, cancelled, or your policy lapses for some reason?

Third - if you are Cancelled, Nonrenewed, or Your policy lapses, there are a few insurers out there that may still be writing insurance [For the record many of these are insurers that I do not work with so what I am sharing with you is from second hand and or media reports.]

Some of the Options Available are...

Renters: Farmers Insurance wants your renters policies! If you need a Renters Insurance Policy call a few Farmers Insurance Agents. Amica Insurance I have heard is also accepting them. If you have access to USAA - contact them as well. Lastly AAA may write this as well.

Condo Unit Owners: Believe it or not, unit owners are having trouble finding insurance as well. Try Amica, AAA and Farmers Insurance. Farmers recently announced that they were writing these and AAA seems to have been writing them all along. Sadly one major admitted insurer recently announced that they are leaving this market in California.

Condo Association HOA Policies: These are the master building policies written on the commercial side. These are very hard to source at the present moment. These and TIC policies require a long lead time to quote. A few insurers out there are still writing them. Try Farmers Insurance or an Indpendent Commercial Broker. Otherwise lots of it is going nonadmited on an ACV basis.

Landlord Policies for Standalone homes: These are homes that are occupied by a long term tenant. This gets a lot trickier here. Marindependent has markets for this, but much of our options are through FAIR and nonadmitted insurers. I would first confirm that AAA will not write it.

Short Term Landlord Policies: These are homes occupied by Air B and B short term rentals. There may be an admitted insurer writing this that I am not aware of, but I am only recently seeing these written by nonadmitted insurers. We have some options for this.

Homeowners Policies: these are a Owner Occupied Homes. These are tricky as well. Contact AAA first to see if they will write the policy. We have two admitted insurers considering these and often nonadmitted insurers and the FAIR plan. Often you can get insurance, but its not as cheap or as simple as it once was.

Affluent Homeowners Policies: These are more expensive, uniqute, and exotic properties: These are becoming very hard to insure and the answer is usually either the FAIR plan with a Companion policy [if the FAIR limits work] or a nonadmitted insurer. But be prepared for a massive bump up in premium and lack of coverages.

Apartment Buildings: These are just what they sound like, typically more than four units written on the commercial side Apartment buildings are a nightmare to insure right now. Insurers want full updates of the electrical, plumbing, roof, etc - all in the past 30 or so years. These are increasingly being written on nonadmitted paper with an ACV valuation. But if the building is in a non wildfire area and is new - there are still some admitted options. Marindependent has options.

Obviously this is not a complete list, please do not think it is. Please do NOT make insurance decisions based solely on this article. Always speak with a licensed agent in your jurisdiction. This article is from Jan of 2025 and for obvious reasons is subject to [massive?] change.

Scott W Johnson is the Owner of Marindependent Insurance Services LLC.