Founded in 1886, QBE employs more than 13,000 people in 27 countries. (Credit: Emagnetic/Shutterstock)
QBE Insurance Corp. is leaving the U.S. home insurance market, and thousands of policyholders in California will be among the first to lose coverage.
The company stopped writing new homeowners policies in California last month ahead of a total withdrawal. According to a filing with the California Department of Insurance, QBE has 37,774 home insurance customers in the state, all of whom will be dropped over the next year.
In the filing, QBE said it's exiting the home insurance market in an effort to "narrow its market focus."
A Texas insurer — Builders Reciprocal Insurance Exchange — could take on some of QBE’s California customers, though. Builders Reciprocal is applying to enter the state and has expressed interest in taking on more than half of the dropped customers, QBE wrote in the filing.
QBE represented a very small portion of the California market — just 0.36% — but its withdrawal comes at a rough time for insurers in the wildfire-prone state. Many carriers have reduced market share in California over the last several years, and a few — like QBE — have left altogether.
In its filing, QBE said it would begin to send nonrenewal notices to customers as soon as Builders Reciprocal is authorized to start writing homeowners insurance in California. Insurers in California are required to give customers at least 75 days’ notice before they lose coverage.
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