Latest Homeowners Headlines
All the headlines from our Homeowners Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Nearly 2,000 Homes Destroyed in Texas Since Labor Day Weekend
Sep 13 2011 // The Texas Forest Service reports that an estimated 1,939 homes have been destroyed in the state by wildfires since the Labor Day weekend. The insured losses from the Bastrop County Complex fires alone could reach $150...
How Can Insurance Agents Help the Texas Fire Victims?
Sep 13 2011 // As fires tear through Texas, businesses and homeowners struggle to determine their losses. According to the Insurance Council of Texas, this year’s fire losses are Texas’ worst on record. The Texas Forest...
Chubb Executive McElwee Joins Homesite Insurance in Boston
Sep 12 2011 // Homesite Insurance Co., a Boston-based property insurer, appointed Chubb veteran Andrew McElwee Jr. as executive vice president and chief underwriting officer. In this position, he will be part of Homesite’s...
As River Recedes from Lee, Pennsylvanians Return to Wilkes-Barre Homes
Sep 11 2011 // Tens of thousands of evacuated Pennsylvania residents were allowed to return home starting Saturday as rivers swollen by the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee receded across Pennsylvania after flooding that was the worst in...
North Carolina County to Buy Flood-Damaged Homes
Sep 9 2011 // Mecklenburg County in North Carolina plans to buy more than a dozen homes damaged by flooding last month. County commissioners saidthey plan to spend up to $2 million as part of an effort to remove homes located in...
Texas Fires Kill 4, Destroy More Than 1,600 Homes
Sep 8 2011 // One of the most devastating wildfire outbreaks in Texas history has left more than 1,600 homes in ruins and stretched the state’s firefighting ranks to the limit, confronting Gov. Rick Perry with a major disaster at...
60 Homes Destroyed in Fire Northwest of Houston
Sep 8 2011 // Central Texas is not the only area in the state fighting wildfires. The Texas Forest Service says 60 homes have been destroyed and another 150 are threatened by a wildfire raging about 40 miles northwest of...
Irene Raises Hurricane Deductible Questions in Hard-Hit Northeast States
Sep 7 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...
Alfa Raising Rates for Alabama Homeowners
Sep 6 2011 // Alfa Mutual Group has raised insurance rates for homeowners by 20 percent across Alabama, with bigger increases for landlord and farm policies. Charles Angell, the state’s actuary, said the increase isn’t...
Tennessee Supreme Court Hears General Contractor Liability Case
Sep 6 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 1 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...
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...
