BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry held a bill signing ceremony at the Louisiana State Capitol on Tuesday, May 7.
Landry was joined by Commissioner of Insurance Tim Temple and legislators to sign four bills. Those bills were HB120, HB611, SB323, and SB295.
Gov. Landry said, “today’s a great day, and I’m excited to sign these bills. I think that these bills begin the process of addressing our property insurance crisis.”
Commissioner of Insurance Tim Temple said, “my job is to protect the consumers while at the same time, promoting a healthy, competitive marketplace. Louisiana is not healthy and it’s certainly not competitive and these bills were all designed to help create confidence back in Louisiana marketplace.”
State Rep. Matthew Willard authored House Bill 120 which “repeals the termination date of the La. Fortify Homes Program.”
This bill allows “the commissioner of insurance to make financial grants to retrofit roofs of insurable property with a homestead exemption to resist loss due to catastrophic events or to meet or exceed certain fortified home standards.”
State Rep. Gabe Firment was the author of House Bill 611. The bill “modifies relative to homeowners’ insurance with respect to policy deductibles and the cancellation and nonrenewal of policies in effect for more than 3 years.”
The bill would also allow insurers to not renew up to 5% of policies in the state each year. There would be a cap of 5% in each parish.
State Sen. Kirk Talbot authored Senate Bill 323 which “provides for fair claims processing.” The deadlines for loss adjustments by insurers would be 14 days for a non-catastrophic event and 30 for a catastrophic loss.
Another bill which Gov. Landry signed was Senate Bill 295. State Sen. Heather Cloud was the author of this bill which “provides for rate filing procedures and requirements for rate making.” The bill changes the “rate filing requirements for certain property, casualty, and liability policies.”
Insurers who are writing those policies will be required to submit all information to the commissioner of insurance. The bill states that “the rates and information submitted is deemed approved unless the commissioner notifies the insurer within 30 days from the Dept. of Insurance receiving the rate filing.”
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