Louisiana homeowners might get option to insure their properties for ‘stated value'
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The Louisiana House of Representatives approved a bill Tuesday that would require insurance companies to let homeowners purchase 'stated value' policies, which cover the home for an amount they declare rather than for its full market value.
House Bill 356, sponsored by Rep. Jacob Braud, R-Belle Chasse, cleared the chamber in a 79-20 vote and will head to the Senate for consideration.
Braud said his proposal would allow people who do not have a mortgage to purchase a more affordable homeowner's policy. Some homeowners prefer to take on the added risk of having to come out of pocket for damages if it allows them to pay less in homeowner insurance premiums now, he added.
'The premium costs have just been through the roof,' Braud said, citing what many of his constituents have said about their policies.
He and several of his colleagues championed the bill as a pro-consumer measure.
Rep. Tim Kerner, R-Lafitte, said Braud's legislation might be the only one this year that actually helps homeowners with affordability.
'The downside is that if something happens to their home during a hurricane, they're not gonna be able to replace it if it goes down,' Kerner told Braud on the House floor. 'Well, let me tell you something, I know people losing their houses now.'
Rep. Gabe Firment, R-Pollock, opposed the bill's mandate that all residential property insurers in the state create such policies upon request. Firment, who chairs the House Committee on Insurance, has spearheaded many of the tort reform bills this session in an effort to reduce premiums.
'If we mandate every insurance company in the state to provide this product, I think people in South Louisiana will use it,' Firment said. 'They'll be sold a bill of goods without understanding because they're desperate.'
Firment said he believes the proposal would shift insurance costs to other parts of the state and lead to an increase in blighted property from people abandoning their damaged homes after storms.
This legislative session, lawmakers have largely addressed Louisiana's insurance crisis on the auto coverage front, passing a package of so-called 'tort reform' bills that give insurance companies certain protections or advantages in litigation, making it harder for accident victims to file successful lawsuits.
Braud's bill is one of the few proposals that addresses the other component of the crisis: the skyrocketing cost of homeowner insurance that has mostly affected South Louisiana. The only way to truly address the crisis was to make the provisions of his bill mandatory, he said.
'It was clear to me that the insurers did not care to make this product,' Braud said, adding that he believes it would mostly be purchased in extreme cases.
Insurers would only have to offer a stated value policy at a homeowner's request, rather than make it a default level of coverage.
The proposal moves next to the Senate for consideration.
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