Weather

Robert Ross has long enjoyed watching the sun rise over Long Island Sound each morning from his two-story brick home in Edgewater Park, a small Bronx community just north of the Throgs Neck Bridge.

The pleasure of that view, however, has now cost him his homeowner’s insurance. Ross has received a letter from Allstate Corporation, his home insurance provider of more than five years, explaining that they would not renew his policy when it expires this June.

Allstate is not alone in reassessing its risks in the area. Earlier this month, MetLife announced that it too will begin to limit its business in the same region.

“It’s not right – and it’s not fair – and it’s time New York gets tough on regulating these out-of-control insurers,” said state Sen. Jeff Klein (D-Bronx/Westchester).

By state law, insurance carriers can choose to not renew up to four percent of policies each year. Klein proposed legislation in mid-April that would reduce the percentage of policies that an insurer can drop to two percent. Insurers would also have to demonstrate their potential risk before dropping customers.

“They told me they’re not renewing it because they have predictions of foul weather and all sorts of baloney coming. I guess they’re predicting heavy storms in the Northeast,” Ross said.

“All sorts of sources are predicting more turbulent weather and more hurricanes,” said Joe Madden, a MetLife spokesman. “We have a significant concentration of risk in this area and we have to manage this risk.”

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the weather arm of the federal government, has predicted that Category 3 hurricanes, such as Hurricane Katrina, will occur in the metropolitan area every 68 years. “These models are very reliable,” said Frank Lepore, a spokesman for the NOAA National Hurricane Center.

While MetL ife has said that it will honor all existing policies, Allstate, the largest home insurer in metro New York, will not renew around 28,000 policies this year in the five boroughs as well as Westchester, Suffolk and Nassau counties – about three percent of their 900,000 New York policies.

Allstate has said that homes in major cities on the East and Gulf coasts have a high risk of catastrophic damages from hurricanes. But the insurer has said this is not its only criteria for non-renewal. Customers that have multiple claims may also be dropped, according to Krista Conte, an Allstate spokeswoman.

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-New York) recently called on the New York State Department of Insurance to investigate Allstate’s decision. The senator has said he believes that insurance companies are pulling out of the area to pressure legislators to create a taxpayer-funded catastrophic fund.

Ross plans to sign on with Tower Insurance, a New York-based home insurer, for $3 less a year than what he paid Allstate. He does wonder if the insurance companies know something he doesn’t about the upcoming hurricane season, which begins June 1.

There’s gotta be something to it. Everyone seems nervous about it,” he said.

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