| Insurance Reform - New York |
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By Benjamin Peim - New York Daily News, October 4th, 2009 When Bronx homeowner John Zagami opened a letter from his insurance company this past June, he was stunned. State Farm, which had insured the retired shopkeeper's home since 1969, informed Zagami it was dropping him because his house was within 1,000 feet of Long Island Sound and, according to the firm, was at risk of being destroyed by a hurricane. "Hurricane? What hurricane?" said Zagami, 78, who lives three blocks from the water in the Country Club section of the east Bronx. "For all these years I've been here, I've never had to make one claim." Zagami is by no means alone. Read more . . . The big queasy: Ridge homeowner is howling over storm coverage By Ben Muessig - The Brooklyn Paper, April 8, 2009 Bay Ridge resident Robert Newmark says his neighborhood is nothing like New Orleans — except that he can’t get homeowners’ insurance, just like the people in that hurricane-tossed city. Angry about being cancelled by Allstate, which is concerned about possible storm damage in Bay Ridge, the retired schoolteacher stormed a Community Board 10 meeting last month to sound the alarm that major insurance providers are still nixing home insurance policies. Read more . . . Saga of insurance company and destroyed house continues By Dan Higgins, The Advocate - The Times-Union (New York), April 5, 2009 Leslie Grossman Brown awoke at 4:05 on the morning of Oct. 6, 2006, when a piece of a bedroom wall fell on her head. When she came down the stairs, she found a Mitsubishi Eclipse in the living room. Read more . . .Overblown? Coverage Pulled on Storm Fears Many New Yorkers paid their homeowners' insurance premiums, but policies were canceled anyway Tracy Connor - New York Daily News, October 6, 2008 Bronx resident Joan Bellwood paid her homeowner's insurance premiums faithfully for nine years, so when she read a letter from Allstate last spring, she was furious. The giant carrier was dropping her as a customer, saying the risk from a hurricane was too high since she lives within 1,000 feet of Long Island Sound in Country Club in the East Bronx. "Of course, I panicked. I said, 'How am I going to find a new insurance company?' " recalled Bellwood, 58, a purchasing agent at a financial services company. "I called Geico, State Farm, a few brokers and no one would touch me. They wouldn't even consider giving me coverage." Bellwood's worries were hardly unique. Read more . . .The big one could be coming - are you ready? Opinion - Newsday, September 7, 2008 Hurricane vigilance requires that you do some thinking about insurance. It may sound way too complicated and murky to delve into, but the consequences of avoiding that thought process can be catastrophic. People hit by Hurricane Katrina had to survive not just the terror of the event, but also the insurance-related shock of its aftermath. Some had not bought flood insurance, because the floodplain maps were out of date and hadn't shown their homes as lying in a high-risk flood area. Others ran into a nasty little legal reality when insurance companies argued that they didn't have to pay for wind damage, because the destruction in question was actually caused by flooding, which is covered instead by the National Flood Insurance Program.In effect, this "anti-concurrent causation clause" (a mouthful of a term that could only have been devised by the insurance industry) shifts the burden of proof to you - what really caused the damage, wind or water? - at a time when your house has just been reduced to a pile of rubble. That explains why Rep. Gene Taylor (D-Miss.) got the House to put some new language in the legislation reauthorizing the flood insurance program. It bans the concurrent-cause scam, and it allows the flood insurance program to offer policies that cover wind and flood damage. This multiple-peril coverage wouldn't be cheap, but it sure beats thinking you're covered, only to find out after the storm that you're not. Read more . . . Taking a hit on insurance Consumer groups charge that New Yorkers are overpaying for policies on their autos and homes, while the industry still draws big profits By Tom Incantalupo - Newsday, April 3, 2008 Retired Grummanite Phil Blum of Levittown says the homeowner's insurance premium on his improved cape went up only a little this year - from $844 last year to $907. But there was a catch: his deductible for hurricane damage was raised. And he is not happy. "I think that if they're in the business of risk, they should be taking the risk," Blum, 62, said of the industry. Read more . . . New York home and auto insurers accused of overcharging customers Industry trade group ridicules findings By Jonathan Epstein - Buffalo News Business Today (New York), March 8, 2008 A national report last month by the three groups found that the industry's average "loss ratio" nationwide - the percent of premiums paid out in claims - was 62 percent for home insurance and 61 percent for auto. But in New York, it was 46 percent for home - 16 points lower than the national average - and 55 percent for auto. Read more . . . State Farm defends decision to terminate LI homeowner policies By James Bernstein - Newsday.com (New York), February 15, 2008 A State Farm spokesman yesterday defended the company's decision to terminate homeowners policies on Long Island, saying the giant insurer is fearful of intense storms predicted by forecasters and large damage claims. Meanwhile, state insurance department officials said they are investigating complaints by homeowners whose policies were dropped by State Farm. And Sen. Charles Schumer (D- NY) continued his sharp criticism of State Farm. Read more . . . Allstate deal has a catch: no lawsuits By Keith Herbert - Newsday, December 21, 2007 The consumer-friendly agreement between Allstate and state insurance regulators comes with a snag: The 55,000 New York residents eligible for new policies will have to give up their right to sue the insurance giant. The agreement announced earlier this week allows homeowners who had Allstate insurance, but were dropped by the company because they didn't have other lines of insurance, like auto, to renew their old policies. Read more . . . Controlling the coverage Sen. Charles Schumer touts legislation that would include wind damage in fed's flood policies to stop unregulated private homeowner insurers By Keith Herbert - Newsday, October 23, 2007 More New Yorkers are turning to unregulated insurers for property coverage, further proof that federal regulation is needed to stabilize the homeowners' insurance market on Long Island, Sen. Charles Schumer said yesterday. During a news conference at the home of a Huntington homeowner, Schumer (D-N.Y.) cited the trend to support his call for legislation that would expand a federal flood insurance program to include hurricane wind damage. Private insurers fearful of a catastrophic storm hitting Long Island have been unwilling to cover wind damage, so the federal government should add "multi-peril coverage" to its flood insurance program, Schumer said. "I think this would solve the problem once and for all," he said of legislation being considered by a Senate banking committee he serves on. Read more . . . LI lawmakers pushing for windstorm coverage By Beth Murtagh - Newsday, September 29, 2007 WASHINGTON - Long Island homeowners could one day add windstorm coverage to their flood insurance policies, one of several provisions in a newly passed House bill. Under the "multiple peril option" of the bill, approved Thursday, the National Flood Insurance Program would be expanded to include windstorm coverage. Long Island delegates who voted for the bill said the legislation was largely shaped by the "wind vs. water" insurance wars in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, where insurance adjusters said much hurricane damage was caused by wind, not water, and therefore not covered. "I don't want Long Islanders to go through what victims of Katrina faced when their homes were ravaged and they found out that insurance companies were exploiting loopholes to avoid paying claims," Rep. Steve Israel (D-Huntington) said. Read more . . . Allstate fears cost of hurricanes By Jay Loomis - The Journal News (New York), August 2, 2007 Mark L. Levine is scrambling to find insurance for his four-bedroom home in Yorktown Heights after his current carrier, Allstate Corp., opted to not renew his policy. Allstate cited the risks of major hurricanes along the East Coast for its decision. That explanation surprised Levine and his wife, Stephanie Von Hirschberg, because they have never experienced serious storm damage or filed an insurance claim in the 15 years that that they have lived in the home, according to Levine. Read more . . . Big hurricane could flood metro area By Tom Baldwin - Asbury Park Press (New Jersey), July 23, 2007 While sunning in the beach chair, toes in the sand, eyeing the waves as they crest and break in their foamy bluster, look to your distant left. There lies the problem. You are gazing at a geological nuance called the "New York Bight." The Bight is a vast right angle that many in the hurricane game say is the most dangerous chunk of East Coast firmament. It is a bull's-eye for the screaming storms that can tarry offshore each June to November, spinning counter-clockwise across the Atlantic from the sands of West Africa. "It would come right up and flood New York City and parts of New Jersey," said Jeff Tittel, who heads the Sierra Club in New Jersey. Asked how the areas could be evacuated, he said, "You can't. Many of those places are low-lying . . . and we (New Jersey) don't do hazard-planning." Read more . . . Insurer is latest to cite liability risks if major predicted storm hits; state department says it is "concerned" By James Bernstein - Newsday, January 31, 2007 With New York State Insurance Department officials expressing concern, Travelers has become the latest insurer that will no longer offer homeowners policies on Long Island. Allstate, MetLife and Nationwide have already either halted all homeowners policies on Long Island or limited the number that they will provide. Read more . . .
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