Many are waiting to hear if their policies will be renewed on time, according to Newsweek. But what happens if they don’t hear anything back from the fire insurer?

As the peak fire season approaches, homeowners are wringing their hands as they try to figure out how to protect their homes.

With fewer options to shop around for fire insurance, Californians are clogging up the remaining fire insurers.

Proposition 103 in California also restricts how much insurance companies can raise rates to make up for the loss in profits that the companies face during the wildfire season.

It is not a state agency, but it is backed by all property insurers licensed in California.

This has become a headache for everyone, including homeowners who have not received the renewal paperwork they would typically receive in January.

President of Sadler & Company Insurance Brokers Jay Zemansky told the San Francisco Chronicle that the delays were causing homeowners to remain uninsured, creating more uncertainty and fear as fire season approaches.

This wasn’t the FAIR Plan’s original mission, and it now prompts the question: What are Californians expected to do?

With high rates and additional plans that are necessary to purchase to cover liability, theft, and water damage, homeowners are looking for alternatives within the traditional market.

Tolle, who has been living and insured in his current home since 2015, was originally covered by State Farm. After six years, State Farm said they would no longer be covering his location.

Left “scrambling” to find a new policy, Tolle went back to Lloyds. Four months later, Lloyds informed him that they would not be renewing his policy once it expired.

While Tolle and his wife can afford these increases, the price gouging and limited insurers are making it impossible for homeowners to protect themselves against California’s climate crises.

State Farm and Allstate have stopped accepting new application for polices on property in California, with Allstate stating in Novemeber 2022 that it would “pause new homeowners, condo and commercial insurance policies in California to protect current customers.”

When State Farm announced it would be limiting plans across California for fire and flooding protecting, it said it could no longer protect its investments due to the many buildings were being destroyed by climate catastrophes and inflation making it too expensive to rebuild.

Even after the $4.6 billion in damages from California’s atmospheric rivers from 2022-2023, only 3,000 Californians enrolled in the National Flood Insurance Program, according to Politico.

On top of that, an out of date FEMA map only requires 23 percent of California properties to have flood insurance due to the high flood risks.

He continues, saying, “Then the next problem we talked about over the last five years was fire. It’s only been the last year that floods came back into people’s consciousness.”

The vast majority of homes and businesses in the eight Southern California counties hit by floods lack flood insurance, with only 52,820 covered, according to the National Flood Insurance Program (via Newsweek). This means that only one percent of the 7.7 million households and business were protected during the floods.

While the law is meant to help Californians, Kevelighan, of the Insurance Information Institute, says the law “creates a regulatory environment in California that restricts the industry from adequately including climate risk in its forecasting and is one of the reasons the industry is being forced to pull back coverage in the state,” (via CNBC).

Most residents are willing to remain uninsured when it comes to flooding since the state is more prone to fire.

Kevelighan continues, saying: “And that’s the first time when a consumer even begins to think about where they’re living and what the risks might be,” he said. “The cost reflects that risk. That should be an alarm to tell them that they’re living in a risky place and then ask themselves: How could I reduce that risk? Or do I need to think about living somewhere else?”

However, Florida’s home insurance crisis has on the rise for years due to the dangers of weather-related damage that has been caused by several factors.

The frequency of hurricanes do not give insurers a chance to recover financially from the cost of covering claims. Adding to the hardships face by homeowners, the cost of property value has spiked, and insurance companies have gone up by 300 percent, according to the Insurance Information Institute (via Yahoo!).

Because the state doesn’t charge income taxes, the large number of those insured by the state’s backup insurance plan could bankrupt that state if another massive hurricane comes ripping through.