BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) – Insurance was at the top of many people’s minds as lawmakers went into this year’s legislative session. Now in the middle of hurricane season, homeowners are still struggling to find affordable insurance. Lawmakers passed some bills aiming to help them out, while some say they didn’t go far enough.
A priority for not only the insurance department, but advocacy groups as well, was getting the fortify roofs program up and running. The legislature has put $30 million into the fund for homeowners to apply for. A bill was also passed to ensure a policyholder will get a premium discount if they build the fortified roof.
“But it’s also going to ensure that taxpayer dollars are well spent. If we’re going to use money to incentivize the fortified roof program, we need to guarantee policyholders that their insurance company is going to give them this discount,” said Ben Riggs, executive director of Real Reform Louisiana.
There was no major tort reform passed this year around homeowners insurance. HB601 was carried by State Rep. Mike Huval. It was supported by LDI, saying it would make Louisiana more competitive and attractive for companies to come to the state. Riggs said it would have been harmful to policyholders and made it easier for companies to delay claims. The bill ultimately did not pass.
Some protections were put in place such as protecting the right to hire a public adjuster.
Before the session began, lawmakers allocated $45 million to the Insure Louisiana Incentive Fund. An additional $13 million was added to that fund during the session to meet the demand of the companies interested in the program. Eight companies have signed up so far.
“Somewhere around 50,000-55,000 policies will be written out of Citizens by those companies over the next several months trying to get permanent entitlement to the grant money,” Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon said.
Donelon said a report of how many policies those companies have started to write, and in what parishes, will be released this week.
The fortify roof program is expected to open up for applications on Oct. 1.
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