There is hereby created the North Carolina Insurance Underwriting Association, consisting of all insurers authorized to write and engage in writing within this State, on a direct basis, essential property insurance, except town and county mutual insurance associations and assessable mutual companies as authorized by N.C. Gen. Stat. § 58-7-75(5)b, 58-7-75(5)d, and 58-7-75(7)b and except an insurer who only writes insurance in this State on property exempted from taxation by the provisions of N.C. Gen. Stat. § 105-278.1 through N.C. Gen. Stat. § 105-278.8 Every such insurer shall be a member of the Association and shall remain a member of the Association so long as the Association is in existence as a condition of its authority to continue to transact the business of insurance in this State. (1967, c. 1111, s. 1; 1969, c. 249; 1971, c. 1067, s. 2; 1987 (Reg. Sess., 1988), c. 975, s. 20; 1998-211, s. 6.)