Latest Homeowners Headlines
All the headlines from our Homeowners Topic Page, ordered by recency.
California Homeowners’ Suit Against Builders Revived
Oct 3 2011 // A federal appeals court revived a lawsuit by homeowners who accused eight major homebuilders of causing them to overpay for their homes by marketing nearby houses to high-risk borrowers who later went into foreclosure. The...
New Insurance Laws Go Into Effect in Missouri
Oct 3 2011 // Missouri homeowners hit by damaging storms now have stronger protections in place under two new state laws, insurance regulators announced. The laws allow insurance companies to better serve hard-hit areas and protect...
New York Law Requires Risk Reports by Group Homes
Sep 30 2011 // New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has signed a law requiring that group homes and other private facilities licensed by the state to house juvenile delinquents assess workplace safety, record violent incidents and take preventive...
Insurer Retools Home Value Insurance Coverage
Sep 30 2011 // Home Value Insurance Co. has re-entered the insurance market with a product that promises to protect homeowners from falling home values. Home Value Insurance initially launched the product in 2009. The company has...
Irene Water Damage Worse Than Wind: Ipsos/Reuters Poll
Sep 23 2011 // The number of people in the Northeastern United States who suffered water damage from Hurricane Irene is more than double the number who suffered wind damage, an Ipsos/Reuters poll showed Thursday. Yet two weeks after the...
California Homeowners’ Suit Against Builders Revived
Sep 22 2011 // A federal appeals court revived a lawsuit by homeowners who accused eight major homebuilders of causing them to overpay for their homes by marketing nearby houses to high-risk borrowers who later went into...
Florida Supreme Court Weighs If Public Adjuster Law Limits Free Speech
Sep 22 2011 // Public adjusters would have more access to homeowners in the immediate aftermath of a storm if the Florida Supreme Court rules Florida’s current public adjuster law unconstitutional. The Florida Supreme Court...
Texas Forest Service: Residents Should Clear Debris Around Homes
Sep 21 2011 // With the wildfire in Texas’ Bastrop County mostly contained, the Texas Forest Service is urging residents who live in the area affected by the 34,000-plus-acre wildfire to clear recently fallen pine needles and other...
Bastrop, Texas, Wildfire Nearly Contained, Thousands Left Homeless
Sep 20 2011 // A wildfire that began more than two weeks ago in Bastrop County is 95 percent contained, according to the Texas Forest Service. The area is about 25 miles east of Austin. The TFS reports that the cause of the fire was most...
Florida Regulator Slashes Sinkhole Rate Hike, Lowers Others
Sep 20 2011 // Florida residents who have sinkhole insurance through the state-backed property insurer will not have to pay a proposed statewide average 447 percent increase. Citizens Property Insurance Corp. customers will also be...
Alabama Special Session on Home Insurance Possible in January
Sep 19 2011 // The special legislative session that Gov. Robert Bentley has promised on the affordability and availability of homeowners insurance could come in early 2012. The governor and the chairman of his insurance commission said a...
Irene Raises Hurricane Deductible Questions in Northeast States
Sep 19 2011 // New York and New Jersey regulators said recently that hurricane deductibles should not apply on homeowners’ insurance policies for Irene damages in their states. That’s because Irene was downgraded and...
Home Insurers in Georgia Want to Hike Rates
Sep 19 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...
Wildfires in Texas’ Bastrop County Destroy More than 1,500 Homes
Sep 19 2011 // The number of homes destroyed by wildfires in a single Texas county had risen to 1,554 as of Sept. 11, 2011. The massive Bastrop County Complex fire was one of a rash of wildfires that broke out across drought-stricken...
Tennessee Court Gets General Contractor Liability Case
Sep 19 2011 // The Tennessee Supreme Court is considering a case that could change a homeowner’s ability to recover damages when a subcontractor botches a home repair or remodeling job. The case involves a Hamilton County couple...
Customer Satisfaction with Home Insurers Improves, Says J.D. Powers
Sep 19 2011 // Customer satisfaction with homeowners insurance companies this year is up from 2010, but still remains below levels achieved in 2009. Overall satisfaction with homeowners insurance companies averages 769 in 2011 —...
New Insurance Laws Go Into Effect in Missouri
Sep 16 2011 // Missouri homeowners hit by damaging storms now have stronger protections in place under two new state laws that recently went into effect, insurance regulators announced. The laws allow insurance companies to better serve...
Insurance Rates for Coastal Alabama Homeowners Going Down
Sep 15 2011 // Alabama homeowners insured by the state’s property insurer of last resort are paying less after the insurer implemented its first rate decrease in three years. The Alabama Insurance Underwriting Association last...
Florida’s Citizens Faces Critics at Public Hearing Over Sinkhole Rates
Sep 14 2011 // Florida homeowners came by the hundreds in cars and buses to speak out against the state-backed property insurer’s plan to increase sinkhole rates by an average 429 percent. At an unprecedented public hearing in...
State Farm Seeks 10% Homeowners Rate Hike in Texas
Sep 14 2011 // State Farm Insurance has filed notice seeking an average 10 percent increase in Texas homeowner rates. But company officials say discounts will be boosted to hold the actual premium hike to 1.4 percent statewide. The...
