Sunday, December 3, 2023
By Submitted Story on September 27, 2023
A beach house that collapsed along North Carolina’s Outer Banks rest in the water on Tuesday, May 10, 2022, in Rodanthe, N.C. (File photo: Cape Hatteras National Seashore)
NORTH CAROLINA — Nationwide will not renew homeowners insurance policies for 10,525 households in North Carolina, more than half of them due to hurricane risks, according to Jason Tyson, NCDOI communications director for the North Carolina Department of Insurance (NCDOI).
The majority are in the eastern part of the state, however, more than 1,000 of the nonrenewals are on the Outer Banks, with 838 in Dare County, 220 in Currituck County and 52 in Hyde County, according to information provided by Tyson.
Nationwide notified the NCDOI in February 2023 that it would not be renewing 10,525 personal lines policies, which is 4.4% of its 237,652 North Carolina policies and 1.7% of its 621,705 policies across the country, Tyson confirmed to News 3. He said that 5,781 policies will be nonrenewed based on the “hurricane hazard assessment tool,” and 4,744 policies will be nonrenewed for referral to the North Carolina Insurance Underwriting Association, commonly called the Beach Plan.
Nationwide’s statement to NCDOI explained its decision was to “assess and rebalance its portfolio based on risk,” according to Tyson. The company considered climate severity, weather-related losses and the reinsurance market.
“Consequently, underwriting renewal guidelines were refined, and specific actions were necessary for a small percentage of the company’s business,” Tyson confirmed. He noted that policies being nonrenewed could potentially be rewritten with Nationwide “if wind exposure is ceded to the North Carolina Insurance Underwriting Association and current underwriting guidelines are met.
By contract, if a policy is being nonrenewed, 30 days’ notice is required, according to Tyson.
News 3 has reached out to Nationwide for comment, and we will update this article once they respond.
Tyson provided the table below listing the different counties versus the number of properties being affected by the nonrenewal.
| County | Policy Count |
| Beaufort | 478 |
| Bertie | 20 |
| Bladen | 351 |
| Brunswick | 127 |
| Camden | 111 |
| Carteret | 75 |
| Chowan | 207 |
| Columbus | 258 |
| Craven | 938 |
| Cumberland | 283 |
| Currituck | 220 |
| Dare | 838 |
| Duplin | 425 |
| Forsyth | 1 |
| Greene | 233 |
| Haywood | 1 |
| Hyde | 52 |
| Johnston | 16 |
| Jones | 95 |
| Lenoir | 783 |
| Mecklenburg | 1 |
| New Hanover | 89 |
| Onslow | 592 |
| Pamlico | 70 |
| Pasquotank | 413 |
| Pender | 57 |
| Perquimans | 172 |
| Pitt | 1,324 |
| Robeson | 644 |
| Rutherford | 1 |
| Sampson | 419 |
| Tyrrell | 21 |
| Wake | 1 |
| Washington | 187 |
| Wayne | 931 |
| Wilson | 91 |
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Comments
Go to comments
James
I guess Nationwide isn’t on your side
surf123
No real surprise as other companies have already stopped offer full policies. I was booted out of USAA complete coverage policy in 2000 or so. There are two membership tiers with USAA: primary member (served in military) and secondary (not sure of the name) that are related to someone who served. Primary members kept full coverage and secondary kept coverage except for Wind & Hail. Expect a significant price increase for keeping Nationwide and obtaining Wind & Hail from NCJUA/NCIUA. When my policy switched it was a little more than double (regular policy went down and Wind & Hail was more than my original policy). I have heard but cannot confirm that NCJUA/NCIUA policies are significantly more because they cannot compete with traditional insurers. This makes no sense if they do not offer coverage. Anyone building a new home will want it to be Fortified Gold which will yield the lowest possible insurance costs and in some cases a traditional insurer might assume all of the risk.
surf123
Mark…the photo shown is not relevant other than it is showing a house that has been destroyed. It most certainly is a flood claim and possibly misleading to those not familiar with who covers what.
Travis
Home insurance is not much different than legalized gambling except the house ALWAYS wins and the deck is stacked against you, the player. And worse, most people are forced to play in the insurance casino. You can’t get a home loan without having insurance: if you lose insurance while you still have an outstanding loan the bank can call the loan. Meaning for most people, they’ll pay through the nose to have insurance because the alternative is so much worse.
And the insurance casino is always open to players who aren’t likely to win many chips. Lightning strikes even the most fortunate sometimes and so the insurance casino will lose a little here and there. But if the odds shift too far in the player’s favor or if the loss is too big to cover, the casino conveniently closes its doors.
It’s not a solution, but at a minimum the law should be changed to require a 12 month (or longer) notification for cancelation of policy. You can’t just pull the rug out from under a homeowner and expect them to land on their feet.
Jim Bob
My insurance just jumped over $500, $200 of which they said was because my “Insurance Score” went down. It went down because part of it is based on credit reports and I dared open a new credit card last winter… That I pay off in a full and has nothing to do with the insurance policy I’ve faithfully paid on time for 26 years.
Thats all you need to know about how corrupt the insurance industry is.
lemonshirt
turned out to be a blessing in disguise. It prompted me to re-evaluate ALL my insurance needs. I ended up finding better home & auto coverage at a lower price.
THANKS NATIONWIDE for abandoning me.
Ed Graham
The climate change deniers need only look at what is happening to the Outer Banks for proof of how wrong they are! They do not care because it is the problem of a “bunch of rich people at the beach”. When the streets and subways of New York City flood twice a day during high tide, maybe people will start getting serious about this problem.
Fuarock
USAA has been a joke since the 2000’s. I served 1992-1996 (plus my 4) and the rates have always been 2x higher than progressive. Most of the biggies including USAA wont’ underwrite you. 5 miles to the beach.
Nobody will touch us here except the beach plan. And Only because it’s GOV subsidized.
There will come a time, probably within the next decade, where you will have to self insure, or you will not have a loan on a piece of property in Dare County.
Steven
Why does everyone call the area OBnoXious? Cause that’s what it’s become with this demographic?
Foreseen
One of the variables was rising replacement cost. Since the oceanfront homes sizes have exploded this has directly impacted those futures dollars. With Dare County focus on tourism and out of county ownership of these rental properties permanent homeowners are being punished. There may come a time when there will be no permanent residents since they will be unable to afford the rising costs while others are padding their pockets. My wind coverage double since last year.
Steven
Ed Graham, the erosion issues here have noting to do with any type of changing climate. Please remember that this is a barrier island, a geographical term, it behaves much differently from other land masses.
Mark Goins
Nationwide (and OBX builders) would well serve the OBX community by adopting a nationally recognized wind mitigation standard. Wind mitigation consists of construction methods that strengthen a home against severe storms, high winds, and wind-driven rain. FORTIFIED Home (TM), a standard developed by the Insurance Institute of Business and Home Safety (IBHS), is the mitigation standard adopted in the hurricane regions of Alabama and Louisiana that reduces the risk of damage to homes during storms and provides homeowners discounts to their wind insurance premium and deductible. I encourage Nationwide and the OBX building and insurance community to check it out @ http://www.fortifiedhome.org.