When Stan Caplan built his retirement home on the ridge of a majestic chaparral-covered hillside in an affluent gated community in Rancho Santa Fe, he wasn’t thinking much about insuring his property against wildfire.
Today, the issue has been consuming the 70-year-old Texas transplant. In June, he received a letter in the mail that his homeowner’s insurance was being canceled because of the “increased frequency of catastrophic wildfires in California.”
Since then, he said he’s been through numerous brokers and rejected by dozens of insurance carriers. He said just one company offered him a policy — but for an eye-popping $24,000 a year with a $100,000 deductible.
“I feel violated,” Caplan said. “There needs to be a solution. This is something that the state needs to address.”
Following several years of massively destructive blazes, insurance companies have been canceling policies and raising rates throughout rural parts of California, according to government officials and industry experts.