No. SB 1476
Filed under Insurance.
Homeowners’ Insurance Premium Discounts; Requiring residential property insurers to provide specified premium reductions for claim-free periods and mitigation improvements; prohibiting the use of storm-related claims to deny eligibility for a premium reduction; requiring the Office of Insurance Regulation to adopt rules relating to mitigation upgrades; prohibiting certain claims that are the result of an act of God from being used as a cause for premium discount ineligibility, etc.
Plain English Summary
AI-GENERATEDA residential property insurer must give a policyholder who stays claim-free for 3 years a premium reduction of at least 5 percent, growing by another 5 percentage points for every additional claim-free year after that.
A storm-related claim, defined broadly to include hurricanes, tropical storms, tornadoes, or any weather event the National Weather Service declares, can never be used to deny, shrink, or disqualify that discount.
Insurers must also give a separate, stackable discount to a policyholder who completes a mitigation improvement such as roof reinforcement or opening protection, and the office must adopt rules listing eligible upgrades and approved contractors.
A separate change bars insurers from using an act-of-God claim to cancel, refuse to renew, or deny discount eligibility, though the office may still approve a reduced discount amount for such a claim within the past 24 months.
AIAn insurer must give a policyholder who completes a 3-year claim-free period a premium reduction of at least 5 percent, and that minimum must grow by another 5 percentage points for every additional consecutive claim-free year.
AIA storm-related claim, defined to include hurricanes, tropical storms, tornadoes, and other weather events declared by the National Weather Service, may not be used to deny, shrink, or disqualify a policyholder's claim-free premium reduction.
AIAn insurer must give a policyholder who completes a mitigation improvement, such as roof reinforcement or opening protection, a premium reduction on top of any claim-free discount, and the office must adopt rules listing eligible upgrades and approved contractors.
AIAn act-of-God claim may no longer be used as a cause for cancellation, nonrenewal, or premium discount ineligibility, extending an existing protection against cancellation and nonrenewal to also cover a policyholder's discount eligibility.
AIBy March 1 each year, every residential property insurer must report to the office how many policyholders received each discount, the total savings provided, and the geographic distribution by county, and the office must publish an annual public report.
AIEven though an act-of-God claim cannot cause full ineligibility, the office may still approve a smaller discount amount for a policyholder whose act-of-God claim occurred within the past 24 months.