The topic of home insurance has become a hot (and bitter) topic for the majority of Humboldt County home owners, and for good reason. If the wave of carriers leaving the state all together was the foreshock, then the rash of dropped policies is the earthquake, and the new and future liability reducing practices are the aftershocks. The first of those new practices have already been felt in the requirement for most 'rural' property owners to add the California FAIR Plan to their coverage, and everyday there's more and more new ideas being brought to the table. Earlier this week I heard about one of these new ideas: Leak Detection Systems. The foundation of this idea was laid within the basic principle of reducing liability which would then in turn reduce the home owners rate. From what I was told, Farmers Insurance is requiring a leak detection system (such as these ones here: https://flumewater.com/?_ga=2.63175279.1157090047.1700892283-1912277406.1700892283 ) on any house over 30 years old before they will issue a new policy. The leak detection system would be able to read your homes water usage and determine if there was a leak, and then alert you of it via the Flume smartphone app. As the homeowner you gain the peace of mind of never having to worry about a leak again, as well as a lower rate! In the example I was given, the home owner ended up lowering their rate by a few hundred dollars a year compared to their previous provider. After hearing all of this, I called a few local lenders and insurance agents to pick their brains on the topic and they all agreed to varying degrees that they had heard of this development, and believed this requirement could be adopted across the board for all new home insurance policies. | 
