Latest Homeowners Headlines
All the headlines from our Homeowners Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Earthquake, Hurricane Keep Maryland Insurance Agents Busy
Sep 1 2011 // First came the earthquake; then the hurricane. Now comes the bill. And with any luck, you have a decent insurance policy that will cover the cost of most, if not all, of the damages sustained in one or both natural...
Home Insurers in Georgia Seek Rate Hikes
Aug 31 2011 // A year after most Georgia insurers increased homeowners premiums by 9 to 23 percent, a new wave of increase requests is pending. State Farm, Georgia’s largest writer of homeowners policies, is seeking a 7 percent...
Irene’s Impact on Private Insurance Markets
Aug 31 2011 // The $7 billion in estimated losses from Hurricane Irene compound the vast damage caused by weather in the United States this year. Yet despite billions they’ve paid out for floods, tornadoes and earthquakes, big...
Can Federal Flood Insurance Handle Irene Losses?
Aug 31 2011 // The only thing worse than getting flooded out of your home once is getting flooded out of it twice. Or, for that matter, over and over again. Margaret Wert bought her Wayne, New Jersey house in 1999, relying on assurances...
Oregon Wildfires Threaten Homes
Aug 30 2011 // Weather conditions improved for firefighters trying to contain a 45,000-acre grass fire in central Oregon, after red flag warnings expired. A dispatcher at the Central Oregon Interagency Dispatch Center in Prineville said...
Vermont Flooding from Irene Take Its Toll: 3 Lives; Homes, Businesses Destroyed
Aug 30 2011 // Vermont residents surveyed washed out roads, swept-away bridges and destroyed homes and businesses Monday after a weakened Hurricane Irene brought the state’s worst flooding in 80 years. Three people were killed in...
Most Maryland Homeowner Policies Don’t Have Quake Coverage
Aug 26 2011 // Most Marylander homeowners aren’t likely to be covered for earthquake damage under their homeowner’s policies. The Insurance Information Institute [I.I.I.] said earthquakes are not covered under standard...
Ohio High Court: ‘Start Action’ Rule in Homeowners Policy Not Ambiguous
Aug 25 2011 // The Supreme Court of Ohio has ruled that when read in context with other policy language, a provision in a homeowner’s insurance policy requiring that “any action” against the insurer “must be...
Is It Time to Consider Earthquake Insurance?
Aug 25 2011 // Earthquakes and California go together. Or at least that’s what most of the country thought until Tuesday’s East Coast earthquake centered in Virginia. Reports of the earth moving were widespread, coming from...
North, South Carolina Coastal Insurance Plans Ready for Hurricane Irene
Aug 24 2011 // Caught square in the path of Irene, the first major hurricane of the season, the coastal insurance plans in North and South Carolina are prepared to absorb what may be their first major losses in years. Both plans appear...
IIABNY Issues Timely Warning on Earthquake Insurance Coverage
Aug 24 2011 // The Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of New York has issued a timely warning in the wake of the earthquake that struck the east coast yesterday afternoon, which affected many New York residents. The IIABNY...
California Targets Law Firms It Says Preyed On Struggling Homeowners
Aug 22 2011 // California has broken up what it called a ring of law firms that fraudulently induced struggling homeowners nationwide to pay thousands of dollars each to file mass lawsuits against their mortgage lenders. Kamala Harris,...
Illinois Court: Homeowner Suit Against Flood Determination Firm May Proceed
Aug 19 2011 // A flood determination company may be sued by Illinois homeowners for failing to determine the couple’s home was in a flood plain, a state appeals court has found. The Illinois Court of Appeals for the Third District...
Universal Insurance Enters Georgia Homeowners Market
Aug 18 2011 // Georgia residents will soon have another choice when it comes to purchasing homeowners insurance. Universal Insurance Holdings Inc. has announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary Universal Property & Casualty Insurance...
Ohio Insurance Director: Auto, Homeowners Rates Still Competitive
Aug 17 2011 // Ohio Lieutenant Governor and Department of Insurance Director Mary Taylor says Ohio’s average auto and homeowners insurance rates are among the most competitive in the United States. The department annually compiles...
Texas Investigates Buyouts of Homes Damaged by Ike
Aug 17 2011 // Disagreements among homeowners in an exclusive Galveston Island beach community have led to a fraud investigation involving a $25 million federal buyout program for houses damaged by Hurricane Ike in 2008. The state-run...
Michigan Man Loses Bid to Have Insurer Pay for Stem Cell Surgery
Aug 15 2011 // A motorcycle wreck turned a Lenawee County man into a paraplegic. Desperate for any relief, he chose stem-cell surgery in Europe, a procedure that may have improved his health but left him with a $51,000 bill. Now, after...
California Allows Homeowners Insurance for Cars
Aug 15 2011 // Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared in Insurance Journal’s Satire Issue, August 15, 2011. The content in this issue is not real and is not to be taken seriously. It’s supposed to be humorous....
40 Homes Destroyed in Deadly Okla. Wildfire
Aug 14 2011 // Residents in Pawnee County, Okla. have started to sift through the ashes following a wildfire that destroyed nearly 40 homes and may have done up to $20 million worth of damage, according to official estimates. Dozens of...
Allstate Reports High Catastrophe Losses, Increased Revenues for Q2
Aug 1 2011 // Allstate Corp. reported improved underlying profitability across all business lines for the second quarter quarter, but those gains were more than offset by $2.3 billion in record second quarter catastrophe...
