'And then the construction costs in California are just through the roof. 'They just paid so many claims over the years that it's financially not it's not paying out for them,' Viso said.

California firestorms top NOAA’s list of the costliest wildfire disasters with $28.8 billion in 2018 and $22.1 billion in 2017. She said previous destructive fires and inflation are large parts of the equation too.

'And so a lot of insurance companies are choosing not to write in certain areas because they can't exclude the wildfire, because the state commissioner won't allow it, which is kind of crazy.' The insurance commissioner has basically said they can't exclude wildfires on policies like they can earthquake or flood,' Viso said. (Paul Bersebach/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register / Getty Images) California tops in costliest wildfire disasters NEW CALIFORNIA INSURANCE RULES REWARD WILDFIRE MITIGATIONįile: This is just one of the 20 homes burned in one the Laguna Niguel neighborhood of southern California in 2022. State Farm is the biggest homeowner insurer in the state while Nationwide is the 10th largest, according to the Insurance Information Institute. She said Nationwide is not writing new commercial accounts and trying to get off all accounts in California, according to underwriters she works with.Īnd for years, homeowners in fire-prone zip codes have been dropped by insurer after insurer. Ashley Viso, Area Vice President of Gallagher Insurance said the decision didn’t surprise her. State Farm is not the only insurer pulling out of the state.

'So in some of those lower elevation areas, this increased moisture can actually increase the likelihood of fire spread.' State Farm only one of many insurers not writing in wildfire areas 'We're seeing a lot more grass growth a lot more shrubs and just a lot of brush growing in California and that all dries out and ends up being fuel for fire,' Lenya Quinn-Davidson, Fire Advisor with the University of California Cooperative Extension, told FOX Weather Tuesday. File: Drone footage shows whole neighborhoods burnt to the ground by wildfires in 2018.ĬLIMATE CHANGE ROCKING THE INSURANCE INDUSTRY AND HOMEOWNERS FEEL THE HEAT

Golden state farm