Coastal and other Downeast property owners may be in for a surprise when their insurance is up for renewal. The winter season of high winds, storm surges and driving rain causing flying roof shingles and other damages to property is driving up some insurance premiums and in other cases causing insurance companies to drop property policies or entire zip codes.
      Roger Quirk, a Lubec resident with long family ties to the area, says, "I was really shocked" when he received his property insurance renewal form. While his house overlooks Mowry Beach, it is located up high and he hadn't considered it in any danger from flooding. "The premium went up tremendously." He adds that he's owned his property for 30 years and has never filed a claim. Because his car was insured with a different company, he reached out to that insurer, thinking there would be savings in bundling the accounts. The agent told him, "No, you have a Lubec house." It turns out that particular company no longer insures any real estate in the Lubec zip code because of high winds and flooding. "She was not interested in talking," Quirk says with a rueful laugh. "I didn't realize insurance companies could say 'no'." He eventually found property insurance with a regional agency that has local knowledge of where his property is located and the risks, or lack of, from increasingly challenging weather.
      Climate change is having an impact on properties in zones now considered risky but also on properties that aren't at risk, explains Paul McKee, president of the Maine Association of Realtors. Flood zone maps are being updated for Washington County later this year, he notes. "That will certainly have an impact," he says. "A lot of [coastal] properties will now be in flood zones." He adds, "We're seeing more flooding, dangerous winds and houses having been built close to the ocean seeing increased damage and increased claims."
      Even properties not anywhere near flood zones are being affected by the change in insurance policies. McKee illustrates a real estate transaction that he is working on in southern Maine. The property is on a high hill and in no danger of any flooding and "will never be in a flood zone." However, like many older Maine houses, its basement is damp. The appraiser took photos that showed the damp basement. The mortgage underwriter then wanted to research whether the damp was a threat to the building. Something that used to be the status quo for old homes in New England is now a possible problem to securing a mortgage and insurance.
      Eastport's historic Hobbs house, located in the middle of the city's residential area of grand old homes and well above the flood zone, new or old, has not been without its own insurance hiccups. Owner James Pollowitz has been renovating and restoring the federal era house and used Lloyd's of London during the construction phase. They were the only insurance company that was available to ensure during this phase, which was not surprising to Pollowitz. However, it was disconcerting to find that once he was done with the construction phase it was still "very difficult to find anyone who would take it on."
      In his attempt to answer insurance agency questions he found that there are no accurate descriptions of the building's square footage at Eastport's city hall. From his own measuring estimates he thinks the building with two wings and a barn comes in at about 10,000 square feet. "I tried eight or nine insurance companies, all leads from neighbors." The insurance agents "were sticklers for lead and peeling paint." He adds, "I'm finding that most companies have no interest in historic homes," particularly when they are secondary homes, as is the case with the Hobbs house. "The whole market is completely changing because of climate change."
      "Winds are a huge factor," says Pollowitz. "They're getting huge numbers of claims on houses [around the country] that probably shouldn't have been built where they are." Compounded by the larger national insurance issues of fire, hurricanes and more that are influencing insurance company decisions, Washington County's demographics don't help, he adds. The insurance company's replacement cost for the Hobbs house would be in the millions, a price tag that isn't realistic for the area. "That tipped the scale to be excluded" from being insured. He finally found a local agent "who was wonderful and very supportive." He adds, "They said the trend of the future is for insurance companies to divest themselves of coastal properties." Pollowitz notes that he has an Eastport friend with an old home, not on the water, who is being dropped because of the winds. "He's had his house for years and has never filed a claim."
      Property buyers and sellers need to be aware of the changing insurance market, says McKee. "We are seeing more and more challenges," he notes. "Even in properties that aren't close to flood zones." Those changes are happening almost weekly, he adds. Prospective real estate buyers "need to research insurance at the beginning of the due diligence phase, not at closing. You better get it then, because you need to be able to get out of the contract if you can't get insurance or the premiums are too high."
      McKee recommends that property owners and buyers regularly check the Federal Emergency Management Agency flood zone maps and any updates to see if their current or potential property is located within flood zones. FEMA has web based interactive maps that can be searched by address, zip code or region at https://msc.fema.gov/portal/search or on the website of the Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry's mapping resources on the floodplain management page.