If you have received a non-renewal notice from your homeowners insurance carrier in the past two years, you are not alone — and you are not being singled out. What is happening across coastal South Carolina right now is part of a much larger shift in the property insurance market, and understanding why it is happening is the first step toward knowing what to do about it.
Non-renewals are up significantly across the Grand Strand and the broader South Carolina coast. Homeowners who have been with the same carrier for ten or fifteen years — without a single claim — are receiving notices telling them their policy will not be renewed. The reasons vary, but they all trace back to the same underlying reality: coastal property insurance has become dramatically more expensive to write, and a lot of carriers have decided they are no longer willing to absorb that cost in this market.
Why Carriers Are Pulling Back
Catastrophic Loss Exposure
The string of active Atlantic hurricane seasons since 2017 — Harvey, Irma, Maria, Florence, Dorian, Ida, Ian, and others — has resulted in cumulative insured losses that have fundamentally changed how carriers model coastal risk. South Carolina may not have taken a direct major-hurricane hit in recent years, but our proximity to the Atlantic, the density of insured value along the Grand Strand, and the cost of even glancing blows have pushed carriers to reevaluate how much coastal exposure they are willing to hold on their books.
When a carrier takes significant losses in Florida or the Carolinas, it often responds by pulling back exposure across the entire coastal Southeast — including South Carolina homeowners who have never filed a claim.
Reinsurance Costs Have Exploded
Most homeowners may not know that insurance carriers purchase their own insurance — called reinsurance — to protect against catastrophic losses. Reinsurance pricing has increased dramatically over the past three years as global reinsurers have reassessed their own exposure to climate-related events. When a carrier’s reinsurance costs double or triple, they pass that cost through to policyholders or exit the market entirely. Many have chosen to exit certain coastal markets rather than try to price themselves to profitability.
Roof Age and Property Condition
As we have covered in other posts, carriers are enforcing stricter roof age guidelines than they were even three to four years ago. Many carriers now treat a roof over 15 to 20 years old on a coastal property as an unacceptable risk. If your roof hits that threshold at renewal, a non-renewal notice may follow. The same applies to homes with documented deferred maintenance, older electrical systems, galvanized plumbing, or other condition factors that carriers now scrutinize more closely than they once did.
Carrier Consolidation and Market Exits
Several major carriers have either significantly reduced their South Carolina coastal footprint or exited the market entirely in recent years. When a carrier decides to stop writing business in a geographic zone, every policyholder in that zone receives a non-renewal notice regardless of their individual claim history or property condition. This is not a reflection of you or your home — it is a portfolio-level business decision made in a boardroom that has nothing to do with your specific situation.
What a Non-Renewal Notice Actually Means
A non-renewal is not a cancellation. Your carrier is required to give you advance notice — in South Carolina, typically 60 days — before your policy expires. That notice period is your window to find replacement coverage. Your current policy remains in force and you remain fully covered until the expiration date. You are not in a gap.
A non-renewal notice is not a cancellation. You have time to act — but you need to use that time, not wait until the last week before expiration.
What you should not do is ignore the notice or assume it will resolve itself. Sixty days sounds like a long time. It is not, in a tight market where finding replacement coverage may require shopping multiple carriers and potentially addressing property conditions before a new carrier will write the risk.
What You Should Do Immediately
Call an independent agent — not a captive one
A captive agent works for one company and can only offer you one option. If that company has also tightened its coastal guidelines, you may hear the same answer twice. An independent agent like Perry Insurance Group works with multiple carriers and can run your risk across the entire market simultaneously. That market access is the single most important advantage when you are trying to find replacement coverage on a coastal property after a non-renewal.
Understand why you were non-renewed
Ask your current carrier specifically why they are not renewing. Is it a portfolio-level decision — meaning they are pulling back broadly regardless of your property? Or is it property-specific — roof age, condition, claims history? The answer changes what you can do about it. A portfolio exit is not fixable on your end. A condition issue may be addressable before your policy expires, which could open additional markets.
Do not let your policy lapse
A lapse in homeowners insurance coverage — even a brief one — creates a problem that follows you for years. Many carriers ask how long you have been continuously insured, and a gap in coverage can disqualify you from standard markets or result in higher premiums. If your expiration date is approaching and you have not found replacement coverage yet, call us immediately. We would rather find you a temporary solution than let you go bare.
Address fixable issues before they cost you markets
If your roof is the issue, get a professional inspection and documentation of current condition. Some carriers will consider an inspection report alongside age. If the inspection reveals the roof genuinely needs replacement, starting that process before your current coverage expires keeps your options open. A brand-new roof reopens almost every market.
Know that the surplus lines market exists
If standard carriers will not write your property, the surplus lines or excess and surplus (E&S) market is the next step. These are carriers that specialize in risks that standard markets have declined. Coverage is available — it will typically cost more and may come with higher deductibles or more limited terms — but it keeps you insured while you work on a longer-term solution. We work with several E&S markets and use them regularly for coastal South Carolina properties.
The Broader Picture
The non-renewal wave hitting coastal South Carolina is not a temporary blip. The factors driving it — reinsurance costs, catastrophic loss experience, stricter underwriting standards — are structural, not cyclical. The market will eventually stabilize, but it is not likely to return to the conditions of 2015 or 2018. Homeowners who understand this and plan accordingly will be in a significantly better position than those who assume things will go back to normal.
The most important thing you can do right now is have a real conversation with an independent agent who knows the coastal South Carolina market. Not to be alarmed, but to understand exactly where you stand and what your options are before you are under time pressure.
Perry Insurance Group | 843-663-4440 | PerryInsuranceGroup.com | North Myrtle Beach | Surfside Beach | Little River | The Entire Grand Strand
