Kittitas County Homeowners’ Insurance

Kittitas REALTORS® identified an emerging issue involving lack of access to homeowner insurance for (a) homeowners needing to renew their coverage, (b) buyers purchasing a property, and (c) properties previously insured under homeowner insurance policies that have expired or been canceled.

Increasingly, wildfire-related losses on properties, or multiple catastrophic losses in the general area, are placing access to insurance beyond the reach of property owners.  In some respects, the situation resembles coverage issues in California where insurers have pulled-out of wide areas with current or recent wildfire claims that produced—or have the potential to produce—insurance company losses that exceed reserves.

But it’s not just a Kittitas County concern: Both insurance companies and land use regulators have begun focusing on wildfire risks in heavily treed suburban and urban fringe areas.

In response to the concerns identified by our Kittitas County members, SKCR brought together policy and subject matter experts at SKCR, Washington REALTORS®, and NAR.

The result of those efforts is that:

• NAR is providing $25,000 in Consumer Outreach Grant funding for a Consumer Education Campaign to help residents of Kittitas County understand options to address the issue, including advocacy pressure directed to the office of Washington’s Insurance Commissioner. The public will be encouraged to tell their story, or file a complaint, directly with the Commissioner’s office.

• The grant funding will be used produce materials that will be created by Real Strategies, including:
  • An informational brochure for brick-and-mortar REALTOR® brokerage firms across Kittitas County, which brokers can then provide to their buyers and consumers,
  • An informational postcard to be mailed directly to consumers, and
  • Programmatic online display advertising, budget permitting.

• The materials will focus on alerting members of the public to:
  • the denial or cancellation of renewal policies, and/or existing insurance coverage,
  • the denial of policies to new home buyers seeking insurance, and
  • where and how consumers can tell their story, or file a complaint, with the Washington Insurance Commissioner.

• SKCR’s Initiative has been selected for a National Beta Test (a potential national model) for responding to this emerging homeowner insurance challenge.

With approval and support of SKCR’s Board of Directors, Kittitas REALTORS® contributed $3,750 to satisfy “local skin in the game” matching requirements for the grant funding.