Homeowners - Latest Insurance News

Finding the ‘Road Home’ in Louisiana

Aug 21 2006 // Louisiana officials expect 123,000 homeowners with damage from hurricanes Katrina and Rita are eligible to receive grants from the state’s $7.5 billion “Road Home” housing aid program, The Associated...

News Currents

Aug 21 2006 // Miss. weighs changes to wind pool Mississippi lawmakers are considering revamping the Mississippi Windstorm Underwriting Association to help stabilize the state’s post Hurricane Katrina insurance crisis. The...

Judge Who Decided First Katrina Case Now Faces Hundreds

Aug 18 2006 // One down, hundreds to go. That’s the tally for a federal judge who ruled this week in favor of Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. in the first trial to challenge insurers for refusing to cover billions of dollars in...

Dale: Ruling, Notices Remind Miss. Residents to Get Flood Coverage

Aug 18 2006 // A federal judge’s ruling that damage from wind-driven water isn’t covered on standard homeowner policies should motivate more Mississippians to purchase flood insurance, says state Insurance Commissioner George...

La. Governor Meets With Insurers About Hurricane Problems

Aug 18 2006 // Gov. Kathleen Blanco met with representatives of at least a dozen of Louisiana’s largest property insurers on Aug. 17, hoping to ease jitters and keep them in the state after hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Blanco wants...

Floridians Flock to Get Home Hurricane-Preparedness Inspections

Aug 17 2006 // Florida homeowners on Aug. 15 flocked to a new state program that offers free hurricane-preparedness inspections and grants to help cover the cost of improvements. More than 3,500 people applied online within hours after...

Judge for Katrina Insurance Lawsuits Seeks Lawyers’ Advice

Aug 16 2006 // A federal judge presiding over most of the insurance lawsuits spawned by Hurricane Katrina is soliciting advice on the best way to resolve hundreds of cases in a “just, speedy and inexpensive” manner. In a...

Florida’s $250 Million Property Loss Mitigation Program Begins

Aug 15 2006 // Florida has begun My Safe Florida Home program, a $250 million mitigation program to help Floridians strengthen their homes against hurricanes and to reduce property losses. Tom Gallagher, Florida’s chief financial...

Judge Rules in Favor of Insurer in Miss. Wind vs. Water Case

Aug 15 2006 // In a highly anticipated ruling in one of the first wind vs. water insurance claims arising out of Hurricane Katrina, a Mississippi judge has upheld the exclusion for damage caused by water and water-borne materials in an...

USAA Seeks 40% Homeowners Rate Hike in Fla.

Aug 14 2006 // USAA Casualty, which primarily insures military personnel and their families, has asked the state to increase its homeowner and condominium premiums by an average of 40 percent. The company made the request last Friday to...

Another Katrina Suit Filed Against State Farm by Mississippi Insured

Aug 14 2006 // Judy Dutruch has long questioned why her insurance company refused to send an engineer to investigate Hurricane Katrina’s destruction of her Diamondhead home on Aug. 29, 2005, before denying her claim. Batesville...

100,000 Homeowners in La. Register for The Road Home

Aug 14 2006 // Louisiana’s The Road Home program achieved a critical milestone in the program’s initial phase with the registration of more than 100,000 homeowners, the governor’s office reported. This figure well...

Insurers in Louisiana Agree to Extend Hurricane Lawsuit Deadline

Aug 14 2006 // Commissioner of Insurance Jim Donelon says nearly all of Louisiana’s homeowners insurance companies, including State Farm and Allstate, have complied with his order to extend the prescriptive period for policyholders...

Delaware Weighs Options as Westfield Insurance Drops 850 Policies

Aug 9 2006 // Delaware Insurance Commissioner Matt Denn has issued a bulletin to property insurance companies telling them to better inform property owners of the option of coverage from the residual market, the FAIR Plan. The bulletin...

State Farm to Reduce W.Va. Homeowners Rates

Aug 9 2006 // State Farm announced Tuesday in Charleston, W.Va. it is lowering homeowners insurance rates in West Virginia by an average of 5 percent starting in December. It marked the first time since 1989 that State Farm has won...

Linda Watters

Aug 7 2006 // Michigan Insurance Director of Insurance Linda Watters wants to make sure drivers in urban areas get a fair shake on the premiums they pay for auto and homeowners insurance. She has developed an initiative that would...

Companies step up to take Texas Select policyholders

Aug 7 2006 // Some 150,000 Texas homeowners will be affected by the liquidation of Vesta Fire Insurance Co. and its Texas subsidiaries by the Texas Department of Insurance, but the situation seems to be not as dire as previously...

Fla., Miss., S.C. top five in flood insurance growth

Aug 7 2006 // Florida, Mississippi and South Carolina now rank as three of the top five states in the nation in flood insurance policy growth according to data released by the National Flood Insurance Program and FloodSmart. In order,...

Florida offers grants to encourage hurricane damage mitigation

Aug 7 2006 // Florida’s Department of Financial Services is working out the details of a program offering grants of up to $5,000 to homeowners who take steps to mitigate hurricane damages. Individual matching grants of up to...

Hawaii obtains reinsurance to take control of Vesta subsidiary