Wednesday, June 5th, 2002 — Rising household water damage claims have cost California insurers billions of dollars and are constricting the homeowners insurance market, according to a study done by the Insurance Information Network of California. The losses have increased dramatically in each of the past five years, the new study of the P/C industry found.

"Water represents a disproportionate share of the claims payments made on homeowners insurance policies," Candysse Miller, executive director of the IINC, commented. "The cost of these claims is helping to fuel a homeowners insurance crunch as insurers struggle to keep these skyrocketing costs under control."

Though the number of water-related claims—or insurance losses for damage caused by burst hoses and pipes or leaks from washing machines, icemaker connections, lavatories and other household water fittings—has varied from year-to-year,