Insurance issues persist as farmers still losing coverage
competitive insurance market. “They’re stating that insurers will have to consider community-level fire-safe des- ignations as part of base rate plan setting,” Anselsaid.“Shouldtherulesgointoeffectas they’rewritten, thatwouldaffordpeoplethe bestopportunitytoseediscountsor toforce the insurers to considerwhat communities havedone tobeable todecrease risk.” The California Farm Bureau and the CaliforniaForestryAssociationsubmitted jointpubliccommentsontheproposal, ar- guing that the regulationsdon’t doenough to ensure that rural residents won’t face
nonrenewals and steep rate hikes. FarmBureauandCalforests alsoargued that thestate’s rulesshouldaccount for fed- eral investment inwildfiremitigation and forest resilience projects. Two such proj- ects inCalifornia, theStanislausLandscape Project and the North Yuba Landscape Project, were announced earlier inApril. The twogroupsarguedthat thecommu- nities that stand to benefit from the feder- ally fundedmitigationworkare likely tobe smaller rural areasor individual farmsand
ByKevinHecteman Terry Rudkin farms avocados in the VenturaCounty townof Bardsdale, across the Santa Clara River fromFillmore, on a ranch his family has owned since 1912. In December 2017, hewatched fromhisdeck as the Thomas Fire burned in the moun- tains several miles to the north. “Itwasnever anywherenearus,”hesaid. “There was never any danger at all. We didn’t evenhave smoke from it.” Then, one day late last year, his insur- ance carrier of 31 years informed him it would not be renewing his coverage. “Theexplanationwas thatmy ranchand residence, andmyrentalhome,werebeing non-renewed because we were in a wild- fire zone,” Rudkin said. He disputes that assertion vigorously. “We are located in the flatlands of the SantaClaraValley,” he said. “Wedon’t have anyexposureatall tohillsidesonthreecom- pass sidesof ourproperty. Iwas shocked.” FellowBardsdale farmer Marjie Bartels tells a similar story. Her longtime carrier sent her a letter inmid-September advis- ing that her policy, due to expire Dec. 11, would not be renewed. Quoting from the letter, she said the insurer told her that coverage was being dropped on account of “having buildings locatedwithin ineligiblewildfireexposure areas as determined by the riskmodel we use toassess riskdamageordestructionas a result of wildfire.” That left Bartels, who grows organic Valencia oranges, less than threemonths to find newcoverage. “Operating a farmor ranch without in- surance isunwiseatbest, anddangerousat worst,” she said, citing the need to protect against natural andman-made disasters. “Most of the small farmers I knowwould not be able to recover from these types of events without insurance.” Rudkin and Bartels said their former insurers did not visit their farms before declining to renew their policies. Michael Soller, a spokesman for the California Department of Insurance, said companies can fail to renew policies for a variety of reasons. He said different zip code areas are evaluated for “both low- er-risk and higher-risk areas.” The Ca l i f o r n i a Depa r tmen t o f Insurance is currently conducting a sur- vey of policyholders and proposes reg- ulations in hopes of helping property owners deal with the problem. Soller said the survey is intended “to identify what geographic areas are most impactedby thewildfire-related coverage eligibility, restrictions, policy limits and nonrenewals.” He said the findings will guide efforts “to address those impacts through policy solutions.” Peter Ansel, a California Farm Bureau policy advocate who handles wildfire is- sues, said the proposed regulations have two objectives: creating discounts for property ownerswho carry out home-level
treatments tomitigate fire risk, and creat- ing community-level designations for fire preparedness as a result of local, state and federal investments. The regulations are meant to see that California homeowners—rural and oth- erwise—aren’t socked with discrimina- tory rates and to encourage a healthy,
See INSURANCE, Page 15
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