#3 How To Keep Insurance

#3 What can I do to keep insurance?

In most cases, non-renewal notices are based on the risk the insurance company faces because of the number of homes insured in a high wildfire risk area.  However, there are things that relate to your home and yourself individually.  These include property wildfire mitigation and home hardening, your claim history and credit rating.

More Details: Non-renewal notices in the foothills are, for the most part, based on the risk the insurance company faces because of the number of homes insured in a high wildfire risk area – something you can’t do anything about. However, if your non-renewal was based on the wildfire risk score assigned to your house, see FAQ #2 "Dropped by Insurance." 

There are things that you can do so that you are not singled out for non-renewal.  Insurers consider these factors:

• Claim history. If you’ve had a number of claims, your insurer may decide to drop your coverage.  Consider this when making a claim, especially a relatively small claim. Consider what you can afford out of pocket when deciding whether or not to make a claim and then reconsider whether it makes sense to increase your deductible, which could result in a decrease in your insurance premium.
• Credit history. Insurers know that people with lower credit scores are more likely to make claims. Colorado allows the use of “insurance credit score” – different from a credit score, in that it weights different factors to use your credit history to predict the likelihood of filing a claim in the future.  According to the Rocky Mountain Insurance Information Association, the use of a credit-based insurance scores is a critical, and highly predictive, component to the underwriting and rating process. If your credit took a hit because of a temporary event like accident or illness, the credit rating companies may make an adjustment.