Nationwide not renewing more than 10,000 policies in North Carolina; almost 900 in Cape Fear area

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — The Cape Fear is an area that gets hit often by strong hurricanes and tropical storms, causing a lot of damage along the coast and even further inland.

So, to better protect itself from thousands of future claims, Nationwide has decided to not renew 10,525 policies throughout North Carolina, with just under 900 policyholders located in the Cape Fear area.

Back in February, Nationwide notified the North Carolina Department of Insurance it was not renewing those policies.

Nearly 6,000 policies were not renewed due to Nationwide’s hurricane hazard assessment tool.

Additionally, weather-related losses and the severity of storms that hit the area were used to determine which policies not to renew.

For homeowners like Matthew Andrews, who does not have Nationwide, it’s scary knowing how easily policies can be dropped, given how important it is to be insured at all times.

“I did, in 2018, during Florence, a tree went through my house and I lost everything here so I had to start over and rebuild then,” Andrews said. “Being from personal experience, I’ve been through that and have had to use it, you know, so its very scary the thought of not having it or just going out from under you.”

Jason Tyson is the communications director for the NCDOI.

Despite the situation, he said people who aren’t having their Nationwide policies renewed don’t need to worry about struggling to find a new insurance provider.

“But the good news for consumers is this, consumers have a very healthy, robust market with a lot of products out there,” Tyson said. “So they do have options.”

The 10,525 policies not being renewed account for 4.4% of Nationwide’s total North Carolina policies and 1.7% of its policies across the country