BROOKLYN, N.Y.–A lack of statewide building standards is a primary reason insurers are abandoning New York State coastal risks, a consultant told an industry meeting here today.

M. Rita Hollada made her remarks during a continuing education course presented by the Professional Insurance Agents of New York's annual Metropolitan Regional Awareness Program.

She told her audience that agents in New York are experiencing the same restrictions to their coastal markets that agents in her home state of Delaware began to experience more than 10 years ago and establishing proper building standards would improve the risk climate in Brooklyn and elsewhere.

Ms. Hollada, a consultant on building regulations with The Insurance Professionals Inc. insurance agency in Selbyville, Del., said insurers cannot insure properties in coastal areas for fear of building collapse during wind storms.

She said research done by the Institute for Business & Home Safety, an insurance industry-supported research group, has found the two most susceptible points for building collapse are roof gables and large, unreinforced entryways such as garage and patio doors. She said the IBHS found that if properly reinforced, the structures would withstand hurricane winds and not collapse “like a house of cards.”

The reinforcement, she said, would be inexpensive and represents only a portion of building code standards needed to make homes hurricane proof.

The adoption of statewide standards, she argued, would make insurers more comfortable insuring coastal risks, and not only open up markets but help lower premiums.

“If we were to build more disaster-proof houses, we would see rates come down,” she said.

However, New York does not have statewide standards, the type that builders are subject to in Florida where new homes are required to use hurricane straps on the framing and install shatter-proof windows.

For agents, Ms. Hollada said, the current market reality means clients only have two markets to turn to for coverage: the FAIR plan (the states residual market) or surplus lines.

“It is not business as usual, and you can't let clients think it is business as usual,” she said.

On the issue of flooding, she said the recent settlement between State Farm and more than 600 of its customers in Mississippi to pay claims for what the company felt were losses caused by flooding opens up a myriad of other potential claims besides property. She said customers can now put in claims for living expenses and it could muddy the definition of the flood exclusion.

“The definition of water on property caused by storm surge has been all turned around with these suits,” she observed.

However, she noted, the susceptibility to flooding is growing as more homes are being built in places where perhaps they should not be, and the environment that once absorbed rainwater is turned into parking lots and roads.

She said in communities that have adopted strong planning and construction codes around the environment, they have been able to alleviate some of these issues.

However, it is a difficult issue to resolve with resistance from developers and politicians to changes that would increase costs.

“Insurers and reinsurers would be more comfortable insuring risks if they saw less likelihood of massive damage if we built to these standards,” Ms. Hollada said.

Special Reports /

Building Code Lack Has Insurers Fleeing Coast

Related Stories

Recommended For You