More homeowners ditching home insurance as costs increase

Would you ever consider going without home insurance? More and more homeowners are canceling their policies as premiums keep rising – but is this a smart move?

L.A. resident and retired public defender Larry Farinholt thinks it is.

He told KNX In Depth, “I don’t have fires in the area I live in. I don’t have floods. So, the only things left that I would be protected against would be slip and fall injuries… and earthquake insurance doesn’t make sense because you have to pay 10% down payment on any damage. So I don’t know why I would have it.”

Although banks do force people to get insurance as a condition for mortgage loans, Farinholt said he paid his house off years ago, and if anything unforeseen were to come up, he would “dip into a 401k.”

So perhaps it’s a good idea for Farinholt, but what about those of us who have years to go on our mortgage?

Oregon-based insurance agent Heidi Moore thinks people are ill-advised to get rid of their policies.

She does concede that between natural disasters and inflation, the insurance costs keeps going up, but claims, “The insurance companies are just trying to keep their heads above water because there is a really slim profit margin for most insurance companies.”

As an agent, it makes things tricky, Moore said, because clients expect her to find ways of lowering the cost, and “sometimes we win and can find a way to save them a little bit of money… but sometimes our hands are really tied, and it just is what it is.”

Moore said she is glad Farinholt has made it work without insurance but warns others, “Two of my last house fires were created by cats. They knocked over a lamp or a candle, and it caused the fire to start.”

The example is not meant to scare people off from owning cats but to highlight that insurance protects homeowners from more than wildfires and earthquakes. She advises everyone to have at least some form of insurance.

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