Amid the state’s coverage crisis, there is debate regarding the size of the reductions for fortified roofs.
Louisiana homeowners who have taken on the added expense of fortified roofs are finding that the insurance discounts they receive aren’t nearly as high as they would have expected.
Fortified roofs are often expected to make coverage cheaper
Homeowners across Louisiana have found themselves facing repairs again and again as the state is hit with major hurricanes over the years. From Katrina to Ida, some homeowners chose to try to kill two birds with one stone by replacing leaky roofs with fortified ones. The goal was to make the rooftops more storm resistant while also scoring insurance discounts that would help make coverage more affordable and offset the added cost of the roof.
Unfortunately, some homeowners who took that step are disappointed in the reductions they’re seeing in their monthly premiums after having made such a big investment in a roof that would better withstand hurricanes.
State officials have looked to insurance discounts for fortified roofs as a path to lower costs
Officials have been encouraging homeowners to consider roofs built to hurricane-resistant standards in order to help reduce coverage costs. This is one of the efforts officials have been calling reliable long-term solutions to the skyrocketing cost of coverage in the state.
While there are programs that offer grants to homeowners who will be installing these roofs, those cover only part of the cost of the rooftops that are much more expensive than the standard variety. Moreover, the reductions in premiums are often proving to be smaller than anticipated.
Many homeowners were looking to those insurance discounts as a way to save money to help pay for those retrofits and others that would help to protect their homes against the increasingly severe and frequent storms due to climate change.
Deep disappointment
A recent report on NOLA.com detailed just such a story, in which a homeowner installed the new fortified roof only to discover that her insurer, Cajun Underwriters Reciprocal Exchange, was offering an insurance discount of only 5 percent and additional retrofits would be required in order to increase the savings on monthly premiums. Though the largest insurers in the state promise substantial reductions, these are not a requirement in Louisiana, so the amount that actually comes off monthly premiums is entirely left to the insurer.
Meanwhile, many homeowners have watched their rates spike by 25 percent since Hurricane Ida, so the reductions barely make a dent in the additional amount they now need to pay, said the report.
