Posted at: 10/22/2012 7:25 PM
Updated at: 10/22/2012 7:34 PM
By: Brittany Lewis
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Email to a FriendInsurance Premiums Increasing
(ABC 6 News) -- Insurance premiums are on the rise, some increases as high as 40%. Hanging weather patterns are partially to blame, which means Minnesota is one of the states being hit the hardest.
"It's not the taxes, it's the insurance," said homeowner Patricia Allendejong.
Allendejong has only lived in her Tudor style home in Rochester for a few years. But in that time, she has seen a significant increase in the cost of her homeowner's insurance.
"I've seen an increase in our insurance every year. In the last 3 years, they've almost doubled our premiums," she said.
The increase is affecting homeowners across the state. The increases range from 10-40%.
"I have seen an average increase for homeowner policy in the Rochester area, I would say close to 20%," said Song Hong.
Hong has been a local insurance agent for nearly a decade. He says extreme weather like tornados, hail, and wind are part of the problem. Even if that extreme weather is something like Hurricane Isaac, it still affects our area.
"Insurance is like a big basket where everyone contribute money to put in a basket and the insurance company has a responsibility to make sure that the basket has enough money when you have a loss, the insurance has to have money to pay for your loss," he said.
And how can you make sure your premiums don't increase?
- Take good care of your home, specifically take care of your roof.
- Don't make small claims.
- If you do file a claim, don't use the money to do the project yourself. Hong suggests hiring a contractor.
"Trying to make money off insurance companies only makes it worse for people like you and me," said Hong.
But Allendejong says she does all of that.
"We take care of our house. We keep it up. We maintain. We protect it, we have fire alarms and security systems and all that good stuff."
Yet, her prices continue to go up. And Hong says, they aren't going down any time soon.
"It's only going to get worse, that's in my opinion."
Hong says the insurance companies aren't profiting from the increase. He says for every dollar they take in, some companies are shelling out close to that.
