It appears many New Jerseyans have heeded the call of nature.
In the year since Tropical Storm Irene slammed into the Garden State, tens of thousands of homeowners have bought flood insurance, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which administers the National Flood Insurance Program.
As destructive as Irene was, many residents were devastated to find out their private homeowner insurance policies would not cover damage caused by waterlogged basements, for which they needed to have flood insurance, the majority of which is underwritten by FEMA.
While mortgage companies generally require homeowners who live in flood zones to maintain flood insurance, such policies aren't generally required or held outside flood zones, where Irene's fury was acutely felt.
Now it appears many homeowners have gotten the message.
Since last August, state residents have purchased 26,621 new policies, according to FEMA. The agency didn't have a tally on the overall number of flood insurance policies held in the state, but Eqecat, a catastrophe-risk modeling firm, pegged the number at roughly 230,000 prior to the storm.
In some cases, FEMA compelled homeowners to buy flood insurance following the storm. Those who received individual assistance from FEMA were required to purchase flood policies, with the agency assisting in the cost of the policy's first year, said Mary Goepfert, an external affairs spokeswoman for FEMA in New Jersey.
Meanwhile, the state's insurance regulator has said home insurers largely performed well during both Irene and Tropical Storm Lee, which struck the state a couple of weeks later.
The state received 498 written complaints related to insurers' actions following the storms, according to Marshall McKnight, spokesman for New Jersey's Department of Banking and Insurance. The department requires complaints to be put in writing before it investigates, he said.
Of those complaints, 465 were deemed not valid. Twenty-seven were deemed valid, in that the insurer's actions broke state insurance laws or regulations, or they should have been resolved without state intervention, he said. However, the state didn't take any administrative actions against any insurers, McKnight said.
The remaining six complaints are still under investigation, he said.
Irene, along with other catastrophes that struck last year, appears to have had a modest impact on premiums so far. Early estimates on insured losses from the storm, which include damages to homes, cars and businesses, were thought to be around $915 million, Jersey City-based insurance data provider ISO said in January.
Since January, 79 insurers have requested and received permission to raise homeowner insurance rates this year, according to data from the banking and insurance department. Separately, two insurers received approval to lower their rates, while two others requested no rate increase.
McKnight said while payouts from the storms exert some pressure on insurers to raise rates, carriers take a variety of other factors, such as the cost of reinsurance, into consideration when setting premiums.
State Farm, the state's largest home insurer by the dollar value of premiums written, raised rates starting in January by 4.1 percent. Allstate, the second largest home insurer in the state, received approval for a 3.7 percent increase starting this month.
New Jersey Manufacturers Insurance Co., headquartered in West Trenton and the third-largest home insurer, raised rates 6.7 percent in April. Chubb, the Warren-based insurer and the fourth-largest home insurer, increased premiums by 2.9 percent, starting in March.
The largest rise in premiums this year went to Utica Mutual Insurance Co., based in New Hartford, N.Y. It sought and received a 22 percent rate increase, according to state records.
A spokesman for the insurer did not return a telephone call seeking comment.
Ed Beeson: (973) 392-4262, ebeeson@starledger.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment