Home Owners Policies

Insurance Companies Dropping Policies

October 31, 2009 | Mark S. Humphreys

A recent article originating in Florida, highlights a problem that many homeowners face and none wished they faced. The article title “Insurers dropping Chinese drywall policies”, talks about some new homes being built with a Chinese drywall that emits sulfuric fumes and corrodes pipes. Sounds pretty bad, and it is, especially if it’s your house this drywall is in.

The problem could be very large considering there appears to have been 500 million pounds of this drywall imported into the United States between 2004 and 2008. The houses constructed with this drywall seem to be concentrated in the Southeast, especially Florida and coastal areas of Louisiana and Mississippi. Texas and the Dallas, Fort Worth, Arlington, Weatherford, and most of the areas of the State seem to have escaped this problem

Most the insurance companies are denying the claims submitted by homeowners. The basis for the denials will vary but most of the time the reasons have to do with the problem being a “pre-existing” condition, or some type of construction defect exclusion. Both of these are often times omitted coverages in the homeowners policies.

What Is “Bad Faith” Insurance In Texas?

October 10, 2009 | Mark S. Humphreys

Most people have heard the terms, “Good faith”, “Bad faith”, “The duty of good faith and fair dealing”, and “Statutory bad faith”. The question would be: What do these terms mean and why do we care? In Texas, as in many other states, the duty of an insurance company to its customer, at least in the automobile and homeowners’ policies, go beyond just what the policy says.

Statutory bad faith is violation of statutes found in the Texas Insurance Code. These statutory violations are primarily found in Section 541.060 and Section 541.061.

Common-law bad-faith and statutory bad faith standards are essentially the same according to the Texas Supreme Court in their deciding of Progressive County Mutual Insurance Co. v. Boyd.

How Do I Know What My Rights Are In Texas With My Insurance Policy?

August 31, 2009 | Mark S. Humphreys

For the most part insurance companies are regulated by State Law. Federal Laws in the insurance industry exist but I’m not going to talk about that here. You just need to know right now that if you are in Texas, that any insurance policy you have is probably controlled by Texas Insurance Laws. This is true most the time even if you actually purchased the insurance out of state or from an insurance company that is not based in Texas.

Whether you purchased an insurance policy in Dallas, Fort Worth, Arlington, Grand Prairie, Weatherford, or where ever in Texas the politicians in Austin and the Texas Insurance Commission regulate the policy. As long as you are now living in Texas, the laws and regulations of Texas are going to apply with few exceptions.

Prior to 2003, the rates paid and the policy forms used for writing insurance coverage were uniform through out the State and anybody who dealt with insurance policies on a frequent basis such as agents and attorneys knew what the policies said and how they should be applied. In 2003 the insurance companies prevailed with rate deregulation and also obtained the ability to deregulate policy forms. The insurance companies ran with this new found freedom, and as a result, there are many policy forms in the market today, which makes it difficult for consumers to compare different products. One attempt to compare different insurance products can be found at http:www.opic.state.tx.us/hoic.php