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Insurance town hall set for April 12 at Event Center, on Zoom
By Sam Richards
Staff writer
(Thursday, April 11) In addition to state Sen. Steve Glazer, a high-ranking representative of state Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara will attend a Friday, April 12 town hall event dedicated to discussion of the property insurance crisis. Julia Juarez, the deputy commissioner for community relations and outreach at the California Department of Insurance, will take part in the April 12 town hall via Zoom.
However, state Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan of Orinda said late last week that she had to pull out of the town hall event, citing a family issue that has come up.
Hosted by the GRF Board, the town hall, which begins at 10 a.m. at the Event Center, will be accessible on Zoom as well – join at https://rossmoor. zoom.us/j/82058467303 Also to be featured will be GRF General Manager Jeff Matheson and representatives of A.J. Gallagher, the insurance brokerage firm whose agents obtain Rossmoor’s insurance coverage from varied sources.
The speakers will work to explain the challenges Rossmoorians (and others) face, and some proposed solutions. There also will be legislative updates and a Q& A session with the assembled experts.
The insurance crisis is affecting both GRF as an entity and the individual homeowners who live here.
The main insurance-related problem for Rossmoor corporately is that its master insurance policy covering 6,313 homes provides only 46% of the appraised replacement value should a disaster destroy everything in the community. While that is enough to cover a 1-in-10,000-year loss event, it isn’t “full replacement value coverage.”
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which guarantee most of the mortgages made in the United States, have noted the lack of full replacement value coverage and deemed Rossmoor and other not-fully-insured accounts “unwarrantable” – too risky a property to finance.
This situation can leave current owners unable to secure reverse mortgages; new owners unable to secure mortgages (requiring them to pay cash); and can lower property values.
And Rossmoor residents, as with residents from all over California, are susceptible to ever-increasing premiums and, increasingly, coverage being canceled altogether. Illinois-based State Farm announced recently that it will discontinue coverage for 72,000 houses and apartments in California starting this summer. Last year, the company stopped issuing new home insurance policies.