SC committee formed to address rising home, liquor liability insurance rates

(WPDE)– For more than a year, residents and businesses across the Grand Strand have dealt with what some lawmakers call a ‘crisis’ in the insurance market.

ABC15 has reported extensively of residents facing insurance providers canceling their policy renewals, moving out of Horry County and other coastal communities, as well as condominium communities forced to go to the secondary insurance market to sign up for policies that double, triple, and even quadruple to costs to protect their homes.

It resulted in a community meeting with the state Department of Insurance late last year. Several special committees were formed to examine insurance fraud and liquor liability laws. Multiple pieces of legislation were written in the 2024 session in an attempt to address the problems. None passed through both chambers to make it to the governor’s desk.

“When you go through all of the work that we had put in place, it was definitley frustrating not to see it go over the goalpost,” said Rep. William Bailey of Little River. “It did make it to the point where I think the Senators saw that it’s a huge issue that they need to take part in a solution.”

That’s were late in the budget-making process, a provision was added that kept the door open for lawmakers to address the issue. Two provisos were included to address the concerning insurance market for property, auto, and business liability.

The study shall include the number of property insurance companies participating in the coastal insurance market, coastal insurance premium pricing, coastal insurance market outlook for the future, possible strategies to stabilize our State’s coastal insurance market, efforts the department may utilize to recruit additional insurance providers, and any other information deemed pertinent to the issue including suggested statutory changes.

The proviso requires that the DOI have this study complete no later than October 1. By then it will be in the hands of lawmakers on a new joint insurance study committee. Rep. Bailey is the lone lawmaker from the coast selected to take part in the six-member committee.

Monday, a town hall took place hosting state leaders from across the insurance industry to handle questions about what some state leaders see as a potential crisis for homeowners. (WPDE)

“I think that it’s really important that it’s a joint study committee because when we get something laid out in hopes of bringing some of these insurance companies back to our area, to make it more competitive, I think we will have buy-in for most of the senate and most of the house with something that we can actually get passed,” Bailey said.

Bailey said the issues for condo communities and homeowners have not gone away.

“We’re still getting calls and emails. People are definitely seeing a huge increase in the condo ownership where their HOA fees are doubling and that’s directly related in most cases with the insurance rates.”

The latest projections in Insurify’s 2024 outlook forecast an 11% increase in insurance rates for SC. According to the group’s projections, only five other states are expected to see higher increases. SC DOI releases an annual report at the beginning of the year to reflect the overall insurance market in SC. This January, the DOI reported that, “Horry County has the highest exposure with $2.4 billion of in-force liability” meaning some of the greatest risk for insurers was along the Grand Strand.

The end goal for the committee will be a tall task as the proviso states it should address home insurance, auto insurance, liquor liability insurance, and more by January 2025.

“This is something that’s not going away and we have to make an effort to try and make it affordable to live in South Carolina,” Bailey said.