The Beach Plan (Asheville, Welcome: home owners insurance, home, live in)

[lunadesign]

Does anyone know about this insurance plan? I just got a letter from our insurance company saying that if it isn't reformed, then NC will be SOL if there is another hurricane - that we will all have trouble getting Home Owners insurance regardless of where we live in NC because the insurance companies in this state will be out of business...??

[CHTransplant]

Sounds like your insurance company is enlisting you to lobby your state legislator on their behalf and using scare tactics to get you engaged.

I'm not a fan of the Beach Plan - which sticks all of us with the cost of insuring coastal properties.

[lunadesign]

Originally Posted by CHTransplant

Sounds like your insurance company is enlisting you to lobby your state legislator on their behalf and using scare tactics to get you engaged.

I'm not a fan of the Beach Plan - which sticks all of us with the cost of insuring coastal properties.

I thought that was the case, too. But they didn't provide any information on how to do so. It seems to be more of an informative letter, saying they are trying to work with the state to reform it and they'll keep us updated. This letter made it seem like those that pay who live on the coast should be paying more.

[ragdolls4me]

The Beach Plan, or North Carolina Insurance Underwriting Association, is a "pool" consisting of all insurance companies who write property insurance in NC. Its original purpose was to provide basic property coverage (think fire, wind, not flood...flood is written through the federal govt) for property owners on the beach who were not able to get insurance through the voluntary market due to the high risk of losses on the coast. It was later expanded to some of the counties inland and the coverages available were expanded. The legislature, in essence, said...OK insurance companies, these people own property and cannot insure it so if you won't do it voluntarily we will create a Beach Plan and make you insure it, thus, spreading the risk among all companies. The Plan operates just like an insurance company--collects the premium, issues a policy, pays claims. When the premiums collected are not enough to pay the losses, the companies who are members (by virtue of their writing insurance in NC) are assessed to make up the difference. So, the thought is, the Beach Plan does not collect enough premium to pay all the losses in the event of a hurricane, so companies would be assessed. The bigger the storm, the larger the losses, and the more companies would be assessed. Smaller companies could, conceivably, go under. That's it in a nutshell, hope that helps.

[lunadesign]

Thank you - that makes perfect sense!

[CHTransplant]

Originally Posted by ragdolls4me

Its original purpose was to provide basic property coverage ... for property owners on the beach who were not able to get insurance through the voluntary market due to the high risk of losses on the coast.

Yes they can. They just don't want to pay the actual premiums that would result if they were forced to insure the risk they have assumed and are now asking others to bear for them.

[Asheville Native]

The coast of NC is moving west, documented, proven, measurable, and well known.

To build a castle on shifting sand is just stupid, and to force everyone to pay for you to rebuild because you were stupid enough to build on shifting sand is outrageous. Welcome to America, the home of the haves, haves more, and the serf class.

[CHTransplant]

Originally Posted by Asheville Native

Welcome to America, the home of the haves, haves more, and the serf class.

Or maybe the surf class and the serf class.

[rubber_factory]

Originally Posted by Asheville Native

The coast of NC is moving west, documented, proven, measurable, and well known.

To build a castle on shifting sand is just stupid, and to force everyone to pay for you to rebuild because you were stupid enough to build on shifting sand is outrageous. Welcome to America, the home of the haves, haves more, and the serf class.

Shifting sand has absolutely nothing to do with the NC Beach plan.