Posted On: August 19, 2008, 1:12 pm CDT

Posted By: Kent

I am a FIG agent in Texas. I congradulate Farmers for making a stand in NC and making a good business decision - I wish the other carriers had the guts to following Farmers' lead. Farmers is simply doing the same thing they did in Texas in 2002 - and it worked! A judge added mold removal coverage to the Texas homeowners form B policy and told the insurance commissioner to reword the policy. After 18 months and the commissioner had done nothing to resolve the problem, Farmers sued the commissioner of insurance on 8/10/2002. The commissioner counter-sued FIG on 8/15/2002 - hence FIG had to either non-renew their home policies or the commissioner had to comply with the judge's order to allow different forms of policies. FIG did't win the battle in Texas but, rather Texas consumers won because they had the guts to stand up to a government regulator that simply wasn't doing their job in the best interest of the taxpayers.

We have a similar problem in Texas with the windstorm insurance association. At some point in time carriers must make good decisions and force government agencies to do their job.