Home insurance issues are nothing new for San Diego County residents living in rural areas.
The threat of wildfire has lead insurers to drop the policies of San Diego homeowners mostly in rural areas. But recently, that trend is also affecting neighborhoods that you might not expect.
City neighborhoods from Scripps Ranch to Hillcrest are also facing the threat of their home owner's insurance not being renewed.
According to inewsource, non-renewals more than doubled from 2015 to 2019 in ZIP codes in Sorrento Valley, Rancho Peñasquitos, and Rancho Bernardo.
Communities closer to downtown like Hillcrest and Clairemont saw 21.9% and 3.6% increases in non-renewal rates from 2015 to 2019.
One Clairemont homeowner received a letter from AAA a year ago.
“They decided that I was in a fire zone,” longtime resident Tammy Smith told inewsource. “I live on a canyon, but ... we've never, ever had a problem in my lifetime.”
In total, inewsource found that insurers have dropped 84,7222 policies in San Diego County from 2015 through 2019.
To protect homes from wildfires, the city of San Diego requires property owners to clear vegetation from the 35 feet around their homes and thing vegetation out to 100 feet.
However, city officers failed to meet inspection targets for the past two years due to a lack of staff.