For millions of Southern California homeowners, insurance is becoming harder to afford as rates soar.

Some are even being told their policies are no longer being reviewed by a person, but instead by an algorithm.

“Well, it’s not fair. It’s not fair,” said Paul, a Santa Clarita homeowner. “None of it is fair, but I’m one guy. I can’t do a whole lot besides pay the premium and say, thank you for another year, State Farm.”

Paul and his wife, Cheryl, have seen their insurance steadily climb over the years. When they moved into their current 2,900-square-foot house in 2014, State Farm charged an annual premium of less than $1,200 for a policy with a $4,000 deductible.

A decade later, that premium had jumped to more than $4,000. And then came the Los Angeles fires.

Paul and Cheryl’s premium soared to more than $6,000 this year, even though the couple raised their deductible to $16,000 and even improved fire safety by cutting back foliage and using fire-safe materials.

“No discount at all,” Paul said.

That, he said, was due in large part to his insurance broker informing them that their policy was now overseen by A.I., not a human underwriter.

“They don’t know me,” he said. “That personal touch is gone.”

It’s a challenging situation for millions of California homeowners now experiencing huge spikes in annual insurance costs.

State Farm, California’s largest residential insurer, raised rates by an average of 17% last year after paying more than $5 billion in fire-related claims.

That followed an average 20% rate hike the year before. The company, like other insurers, cut back on writing new policies in recent years.

State Farm declined to discuss a specific policyholder situation when KTLA’s David Lazarus contacted them about Paul and Cheryl’s premiums soaring by 400% since 2014, despite a quadrupling of their deductible. But the company said in a statement that while it understands how frustrating higher rates can be for homeowners, increasing wildfire risk and rising repair and rebuilding costs make higher premiums unavoidable.

“It is extraordinary but we are in an extraordinary market now in California,” said Amy Bach, executive director of the advocacy group United Policyholders. “These are unprecedented times.”

Bach said insurers typically lump homeowners together in specific areas, even if a home like Paul and Cheryl’s doesn’t represent the same risk as nearby homes atop Canyon Ridges. “That allows them to put surcharges on the rate that are driving it up in that way,” she said.

Bach advised shopping around for better deals, bundling home and auto coverage and boosting deductibles to lower premiums, although Paul and Cheryl show that doesn’t always work.

For many people, especially seniors living on fixed incomes, higher insurance costs mean having to make hard choices.

As Paul said, he told his State Farm agent after their premium topped $6,000, “I got five grandkids. I said I wanted to take them to Disney World. I said, after I got your policy, you know, the premium had to pay it, I said. I told three of them they can’t go. I can only take two.”