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Insurance rates alarm residents

Homeowners on edge about skyrocketing costs

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There weren't the throngs of people or general rowdiness that characterized a previous public meeting on insurance in Myrtle Beach.

But roughly 75 locals expressed frustration and sought answers to higher homeowners' insurance costs Tuesday night from Eleanor Kitzman, director of the South Carolina Department of Insurance, at a meeting in the Hilton Head High School Performing Arts Center.

One resident said he's been through four different insurance carriers in five years.

Another said she had just 60 days notice from her insurance company that it wasn't renewing her policy, causing her to scramble for new coverage.

Another person said his insurance company demanded hurricane shutters be installed on his home to keep the policy. That $11,000 investment would yield just a $1,400 savings in his deductible, if he ever had to use it, he said.

Most of the questions asked by residents didn't have immediate answers. Factors like population growth, hurricanes and dire weather forecasts for the future have all contributed to increased homeowners' insurance costs and there is little the state government can do to solve those problems, Kitzman said.

"Insurance companies are just scared to death of another Katrina-like event," she said.

Kitzman's office had been wooing insurance companies to come to South Carolina in summer 2005, because, even then, demand for insurance was ahead of the supply available here. Responses seemed positive from most of the more than 100 companies the state talked to, but a devastating hurricane season last year stopped that momentum, Kitzman said.

Stewart Brown, an island resident, said insurance companies need to do a better job with the data they have in setting insurance premiums. He said he pays as much as similarly valued homes in Vero Beach, Fla., and Wilmington, N.C., even though those areas seem far more hurricane-prone.

Edwin Kaylor, a Sea Pines resident, pointed out the irony of his insurance company requiring hurricane shutters on his home when it allows eight trees of more than 60 feet high to surround his home.

"The tree damage is what we all fear in Sea Pines," he said.

Insurance costs might not have caught the full attention of the community yet, but residents at the meeting Tuesday insisted there are serious economic impacts, like real estate deals that have fallen through when insurance couldn't be found at the right price.

Kitzman said she knows of real estate deals being stopped by the cost of insurance, but there is no silver bullet answer to the problem. Some of the factors are just out of the state's control, but it will continue to try to bring more insurers into South Carolina, she said.

All the forecasting and modeling in the world doesn't change one fact island residents turn to when they discuss homeowners' insurance costs.

"For some reason, Hilton Head does not get hit..." said Kaylor, the Sea Pines resident. "History should be the best example."

The forum was hosted by state Rep. Richard Chalk, R-Hilton Head Island, and state Sen. Scott Richardson, R-Hilton Head Island.

Contact Jim Faber at 706-8137 or . To comment on this story, please go to islandpacket.com.