North Carolina Insurers Stand By 25.3% Home Insurance Bid
Despite urging by the state’s insurance commissioner that they withdraw their bid, North Carolina homeowners insurers are unlikely to withdraw their request for a 25.3 percent average rate hike.
The data supports the requested increase, according to Ray Evans, general manager of the North Carolina Rate Bureau, and as a result Evans says he does not believe the insurers that are members of the bureau will drop their case.
“As the filing includes complete testimony from our experts to support the detail, we are essentially ready for a hearing at the time of the filing,” Evans told Insurance Journal.
He said the “actuarial detail” suggests premiums are “substantially inadequate” right now. “This is the reason the filing requests a change as large as it is,” he said.
North Carolina Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin has called for the insurers to withdraw the filing, saying he is “appalled” they would seek a raise so soon after a seven percent in July.
The industry’s rate bureau has requested a statewide average rate increase of 25.3 percent, effective Aug. 1, 2014. The filing also seeks revisions to rating territories.
Goodwin scheduled a public comment session for Jan. 24 in Raleigh.
“I urge North Carolina homeowners to take advantage of the public comment period and let their insurance companies know what they think about the notion of another homeowners insurance rate increase,” said Goodwin. He made it clear he will not agree to a settlement if insurers proceed with their filing.
The industry has had five filings approved since 2000. Evans said one of his bureau’s goals is to begin “filing more frequently, once a year, rather than one every 3-5 years with the notion that each would be smaller.”
Last March Goodwin agreed to the 7 percent July hike after the bureau had requested 17.7 percent – a $237 million gap.
Before the July increase, the last rate filing occurred in 2008 when the insurance companies requested a 19.5 percent statewide average increase. A settlement agreement allowed for a 4.05 percent increase to go into effect in May 2009.