VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Jim Reif’s home hasn’t changed in over two decades. Neither has the insurance policy he used to keep his house protected.
"We had them even when we had Hurricane Isabel [in 2003] do damage to this area, when there were 100-foot trees coming down,” he said.
That changed this year when Reif said his long-time carrier dropped him from coverage, only finding out when another insurance carrier reached out to work out an updated policy.
"We were not unhappy with Nationwide [Mutual Insurance Company]," Reif said. "But they didn’t want to continue.”
Cases like Reif's, according to insurance agencies in the area, are becoming less rare.
"Carriers have pulled out of certain areas"
Kelly Gau, Operations Manager at Goosehead Insurance- The Torcia Agency, said phones have been ringing off the hook from clients seeking help finding a new home insurance policy, coming from a combination of either increased price tags for their current policy or being dropped by their carrier altogether.
"[Some] have stopped taking new businesses or renewals for a short period of time," Gau said.
"At least three carriers, just here, have stopped writing policies in certain areas," she added.
Kevin Torcia, the agency owner of the Goosehead Insurance location, estimated that this type of request is a call the agency saw as little as 10 times over a six-month period.
Now, he said it's not surprising to see that total for a single day.
While the entire Hampton Roads region may be seeing these changes, Gau said the coastal proximity of Virginia Beach, specifically, makes it the city where they're seeing the highest frequency of these cases.
While this trend is one they noticed as early as 2022, it's accelerated this calendar year.
"The underwriting criteria has gone from a bigger risk to a smaller risk," she added.