10/25/2020 — When Ed Keller opened a letter from his home insurance company announcing that his policy had been cancelled and that purchasing a new one would cost four times what he had paid in the past, he was sure there had been a mistake.
Bewildered, he picked up the phone and called his provider, Mark Davis Insurance, to clear things up, only to hear from a company representative that it was not an error at all. Keller’s insurance premium had been hiked up by around 400%, from around $1,000 to just over $4,000 per year.
Keller’s tale is by no means unique. Across California, almost one million homeowners have received notices of non renewal and shocking price hikes since 2015, and short of serious intervention, insurance experts, consumer advocates, and state agencies only expect this to continue.