• partial_accumen
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    4119 days ago

    Is there anything in the law preventing the insurance company from giving a customer a “go away” premium level? As in “Okay, you’re forcing us to offer a policy in a place we feel we’re going to lose money? $1m/month ought to cover it, you sure you want us to insure you, Mr. Homeowner?”

    • @FlowVoid
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      3019 days ago

      Is there anything in the law preventing

      Insurance companies now have a legal quota, ie a certain percentage of their policies must be in fire-prone areas.

      So if their premium is so high that nobody in those areas buys a policy, then they won’t meet their quota.

      • @[email protected]
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        2619 days ago

        Soo, the government is making everyone else subsidise living in fireprone areas? Shouldn’t we encourage people to live in cities instead?

          • @[email protected]
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            1219 days ago

            No, those are small settlements in forests, like Paradise. A bushfire won’t make it through LA or anything like that. Nature should be left to nature, and we should increase density in cities, that reduces the damage humans do to the environment overall, instead of having sprawl taking over forests.

            • @[email protected]
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              1818 days ago

              I live in a city where about half of everyone here got stripped of insurance, we are in the foothills and a house hasnt burned down from wildfires for over a decade. You are ignorant of how far reaching these policies are, because everywhere is a fire prone area according to the insurance companies.

              Also the cities that are outside of the fire prone areas areover saturated, they need to have density increased and be rebuilt but that aint happening anytime soon.

            • Flying Squid
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              18 days ago

              I used to live in L.A.

              I have photos (physical, not digital) of mountains on fire because all I had to do was stand in the backyard of my apartment to take the photos. From multiple events.

              These weren’t distant mountains, these were the mountains you would have to drive through to get from my house in the San Fernando Valley to anywhere in the L.A. basin. Like downtown or the beach or my wife’s job.

              Along with the multiple mountain ranges the city has swallowed up, L.A. has both a lot of dry brush to catch fire all over the city and the Santa Ana winds to blow cinders onto it.

              To sum it all up: there are destructive wildfires in Los Angeles.

              Edit: found a non-physical photo of one of the fires on the north side of the Valley, but not a very impressive one that shows flames, just smoke. Oh well.

          • @[email protected]
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            117 days ago

            Not really.

            If everyone facing a similar risk pays for insurance then yes the cost of addressing that risk is shared.

            If someone facing additional risk pays the same price then everyone else subsidises them.

        • @BigDiction
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          318 days ago

          Northern California already has subsidized fire insurance called PG&E delivery charges. It just takes a while to pay out through the civil suits.

        • @[email protected]
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          219 days ago

          Uggghh… you mean the upper class liberals who claim to love the poor people would actually have to live with them? No thanks!

    • @Brkdncr
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      1719 days ago

      They recently closed down my local fire dept then jacked my rates up for not being close to a fire dept. I’m not in a fire risk area, but now I’m 30 mins away from a firetruck.

      I don’t want to live in the city.

        • @andrewta
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          218 days ago

          Does it matter if one group or two groups did it? The effect is the same

      • toiletobserver
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        519 days ago

        Would you and your neighbors be willing to fund a fire district? If yes, get in touch with your local representatives to make it happen.

        • @Brkdncr
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          819 days ago

          They funded the telco, utilities and property while we funded the salaries. They closed it anyways along with a lot of others, then charged us all a tax for living in an area without a local fire dept.

          Our insurance went up about 300% as a result.

          San Bernardino county. Yes they deal with major fire prone areas but it’s the largest county in the US, there are a lot of areas that aren’t fire prone.

          https://www.sbsun.com/2022/01/11/2nd-attempt-to-repeal-san-bernardino-county-fire-tax-goes-to-voters-in-june/

          • toiletobserver
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            118 days ago

            I realize that you enjoy a rural lifestyle, but it is difficult to fund all of the services you once had with low density housing. The government likely pulled your subsidies and it become financially unviable. The message you are being sent is to live in a more urban area that can afford the services. Not what you want to hear I’m sure, but your choices are limited.

    • @[email protected]
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      118 days ago

      There are some restrictions on price increases but they are allowed to and have been making all sorts of nonsensical demands of homeowners with the threat of cancellation as a way to get out of policies in certain areas.