Seventeen Connecticut homeowners insurers waive Irene damage hurricane deductibles

Connecticut Governor Dannel MalloyAccording to the Malloy administration, almost 70 percent of the homeowners insurance companies in Connecticut have announced that they will be forgiving the more expensive deductibles for damage claims relating to Tropical Storm Irene.

According to a statement made by Governor Dannel P. Malloy and Insurance Commissioner Thomas Leonardi, “Failure to do this would result in many homeowners paying tens of thousands of dollars out-of-pocket.”

Even though Irene had been downgraded to a tropical storm by the time it reached the state, the clause for hurricane deductibles became effective for some homeowner policies as soon as the hurricane warnings were issued by the National Weather Service.

These deductibles decrease the exposure of insurers within high-risk coastal areas by making it necessary for homeowners to fork over a larger amount in order to pay for the damage.

The majority of homeowner policies have storm deductibles of between $500 and $1000, which means that the homeowner must pay the damage expenses up to that amount and the rest is covered by the insurance company. Deductibles for hurricane protection are calculated as a percentage of the insured value of the home, typically up to 5%, and can lead to much greater expenses for the homeowners in this type of catastrophe.

A list of these companies have been posted by officials: New London County Mutual Insurance, ACE, Chubb, Fireman’s Fund, Hanover, The Hartford, Kemper, Liberty Mutual Ins., MiddleOak, Nationwide Insurance, Peerless, Safeco Insurance, Tower, Travelers, Utica National, Utica First and Vermont Mutual.

Following hurricane Irene, Malloy and his administration have been working in conjunction with the insurance industry. The result was that seventeen will not be charging the deductibles. Though some were already prevented from invoking the deductibles as the triggers for the policies failed to be met, others had policy language that would allow them to do so, but they agreed not to.

 

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.