A steep rate hike is in the offing for the only home insurance available to many Vineyard residents.
The FAIR Plan has proposed a rate increase of nearly 10 per cent for the Cape and Islands.
According to information released by the Massachusetts Property Insurance Underwriting Association, also known as the FAIR Plan, owner-occupied home insurance rates would increase 9.9 per cent, the maximum increase allowed, on the Cape and Islands. The proposed average increase in the state is seven per cent.
In a move that has outraged Island homeowners and their elected state representatives alike, the Massachusetts Division of Insurance, with only scant publicity, recently agreed to hike to the roof certain deductibles for people insured under the FAIR plan.
The steadily increasing cost of home insurance has been a bone of
contention on the Vineyard for years, but a proposed increase to the
rates of the FAIR plan - the state-backed insurer of last resort,
and the only insurer for over 40 per cent of homeowners on Cape Cod and
the Islands - has many Islanders now crying foul.
The state-backed home insurance provider of last resort for most Vineyarders is called the FAIR plan, but most Island residents readily complain that their ever-increasing premiums and deductibles are anything but fair.
In fact, at a special public forum at the Tisbury Senior Center on Monday, many Vineyarders were crying foul about their FAIR plan rates.
Island homeowners who already pay some of the highest home insurance rates in the nation received some rare good news last week when the state insurance commissioner rejected a proposed 25 per cent rate hike for the FAIR Plan, the state-backed insurance provider of last resort for most Vineyarders.
In her May 8 decision, insurance commissioner Nonnie Burnes said FAIR plan officials failed to demonstrate a need for the proposed rate hike.
Vineyard homeowners who already pay some of the highest home insurance costs in the country will not see their rates go up this year.
After the state insurance commissioner last month rejected a proposed 25 per cent rate hike for the FAIR Plan, the state-backed insurance provider of last resort, some speculated officials for the plan would appeal the ruling.
But at a meeting last Thursday, the insurer’s board of directors decided not to appeal the ruling, at least for now.
Vineyard property owners concerned about sky-high insurance premiums now have company; the Massachusetts Attorney General mounted a claim last month that faulty computer-generated hurricane models have contributed to unnecessarily high home insurance rates for property owners across the commonwealth.
