A hearing on a proposed average 68.3% rate hike in dwelling insurance across North Carolina scheduled for May 4 has now been pushed back to July 6, according to North Carolina Department of Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey.
The North Carolina Rate Bureau, which represents the insurance companies in the state and is not a part of the NCDOI, requested the hike in October.
“The Department of Insurance and the N.C. Rate Bureau has made progress in reaching a settlement,” Causey said in a press release. “More time is needed to work out the details of a settlement.”
Dwelling insurance is different from homeowners’ insurance. Dwelling policies are primarily offered to non-owner-occupied residences of no more than four units, including rental properties, vacation homes, investment properties, and other properties that are not the property owner’s primary residence.
The first proposed average statewide increase of 28.5% would take effect on July 1, 2026, with the second increase of 30.9% taking effect on July 1, 2027.
The proposed changes are averages and vary by territory.
If a settlement can’t be reached, the hearing will proceed in July.
The last dwelling rate hike request made by the NC Rate Bureau was in July 2023, when it requested an average statewide increase of 50.6%. NCDOI reached an agreement with the NC Rate Bureau in May 2024 to raise rates by an average of 8%.
In an emailed statement to Carolina Journal in November, the NC Rate Bureau said it reviewed data on tens of thousands of actual insurance claims from 2019 through 2023 to determine the premiums needed to cover risks and build the request. They stated that they requested a substantial increase in the dwelling rate because claim costs have risen substantially, noting climate change as one of the culprits.
“The 27 separate billion-dollar disasters that hit the United States in 2024 would have been an all-time record, had it not been for the 28 billion-dollar disasters that hit in 2023,” the Rate Bureau stated.
They also noted that inflation in the construction industry has far outpaced overall inflation in recent years, and some of the fastest-growing areas in North Carolina are coastal areas where storm damage is more common.
“Simply put, severe storm damage is becoming more common, it’s impacting more homes, and it’s more expensive to rebuild afterwards,” they said.
