Insurance Companies Are Running Amuck In California
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October 16, 2023

Insurance Companies Are Running Amuck In California

“You will own nothing and be happy,” the motto of the World Economic Forum, is alive and well in California. If you own a home and have a mortgage you need homeowners insurance. No insurance means no mortgage which means no house, therefore the only ones that will own a home are those that have no mortgage, are willing to roll the dice and can absorb the loss. The state will most likely pass a new law that if you own a home you will have to have insurance, just like owning a car you must have insurance to drive it. Politicians will say home ownership is a privilege just like driving, it is not a right. Think it can’t happen?

We are on the road straight to it because of new requirements from home insurance companies. Right now insurance companies in California are looking for any reason to cancel your homeowners insurance policy. Due wildfires, rain, flood, so-called climate change and other reasons they are dropping policies like crazy. Major insurance companies are now requiring a video of the outside and inside of your home prior to renewing your policy. Before they would use GIS data or drone footage to look over your property now they want live footage from inside your home. You must use a live app to video inside of home and they tell you where to go and what to do. This opens the door to a lot of questions and there are very few answers. What if you don’t have a smartphone? What happens? Some of us old timers don’t have a smart phone. What about privacy? Who looks at this video? How long is the video on file? This is a big one and nobody has an answer. The last I heard from a neighbor was that they told him, “we don’t know.” So all these privacy notices we receive telling us how companies respect our privacy are nothing but a piece of paper with lies printed on it. In the end if you refuse to follow the request your policy will not be renewed. Talk about strong arm tactics. As usual if it’s insane it’s in California.

I know a person who’s homeowners insurance was cancelled because they said his house was in fire area due to the open land behind him. He informed the insurance company that there was no open land behind him, just more homes. He sent photographs and the insurance company still refused to continue offering him insurance. They said their decision was based on accurate information. Current photos of existing homes in the questionable area is not accurate?

Today with new technology, satellite images, drones, infrared cameras, smart devices and others the insurance companies don’t have to rely on agencies. They can make their own rules based on information from technology whether it is accurate or not. They have taken people, experience and knowledge out of the equation.

In the 1990’s Home Insurance companies pulled out of California for some made-up reason. Some said it was because of too much risk, some said losses and others said due to rate control. Whatever it was the homeowner got screwed.

I had homeowners insurance from a company for over 20 years. Abruptly they left California and I was unable to get new homeowners insurance. Since no companies would issue new homeowners policies in California the state set up a fund to insure homeowners that could not procure insurance. The State of California said the insurance would be affordable. That was, as usual, was a lie because the cost of my insurance went from about $350.00 per year to just over $1,300.00 per year. So much for affordable. After two years insurance companies negotiated with the state and started to issue new policies in California but there were catches. In my case due to the home being built in the 1930’s the insurance company said they required an engineering study to prove that the house was bolted to the foundation. I would have to use a company approved by them, pay for the study and the cost would start around $600.00. That was outrageous. We remolded the house in the 1970’s so I went to the city building department and talked to the Head Building Inspector. He looked up the permits for the house and said everything was done properly and it passed all building inspections. He came to the house to verify it was still bolted to the foundation and took pictures. He wrote a letter to the insurance company stating that the house was remolded in the 1970’s and passed all building inspections that were required. He also wrote that he verified that the home was still bolted to the foundation and attached the photographs. After the insurance agent received the information he called me and said that the information supplied put the company in a bind. He said they couldn’t dispute the information because it came from the head of the city building department, the agency that was in charge of building safety. The company issued the insurance policy, with a rate of about $600.00 per year, still expensive but better than the “affordable” state rate of $1,300.00 per year.

Once again a procedure or policy that warrants a lot of questions but has very few answers. It’s like they just don’t care. People will go along with it without any pushback and that is the plan and they know it. Still think smartphones and their apps are a convenience? No, they are a form of control to enforce compliance. All of you that have praised apps and run your life by these smartphone apps are the cause for this. For your convenience you have allowed big brother to grow and thrive. You got what you deserved, unfortunately you have destroyed others in the process.

That’s An Old Timer’s Opinion.

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©2023 James Colozzo, All Rights Reserved

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