North Carolina carriers want to hike average mobile home fire rates 82.9% and mobile home casualty rates 49.9% over three years, according to the North Carolina Department of Insurance.
If approved, the first rate increases would take effect on Nov. 1. The independent North Carolina Rate Bureau, which represents insurers, seeks a 24.9% mobile home fire and a 15.9% mobile home casualty average rate hike for 2024.
The bureau wants 21.2% then 20.9% average rate increases for mobile home fire for the next two years and 13.9% then 13.5% hikes for mobile home casualty, all to take effect on a Nov. 1.
The department is taking comment through April 30 on the request. Unlike standard homeowners policies, both mobile home programs cover flood losses. Of the two mobile homes programs, fire covers a broader range of perils.
“‘We are in the process of reviewing the filing, according to state law,” Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey said,
His department said the requested increases could affect about 148,000 policyholders.
This year Causey came out as a hard “no” on a property insurers’ request for an average statewide homeowners insurance rate hike of 42.2%, saying he hadn’t seen evidence justifying it. That proposal drew more than 24,000 emailed and hundreds of mailed comments and significant opposition at a public comment forum.
His decision set the process for an administrative hearing on the homeowners request in motion, targeting Oct. 7. It will be held unless the DOI and the bureau are able to negotiate a settlement, which would save litigation expenses.
The top five writers of homeowners multiperil insurance in 2022 in North Carolina, based on direct premiums written, were: State Farm Group, with 16.09% market share; North Carolina Farm Bureau Insurance Group, 12.27%; USAA Group, 9.7%; Nationwide Property & Casualty Group, 7.52%; and Allstate Insurance Group, 6.49%, according to BestLink.