Insurance companies are being warned against canceling or not renewing homeowners’ policies of Missouri residents who suffered storm damage this year. Department of Commerce and Insurance Director Angela Nelson said it’s unacceptable for storm victims to face added stress while making repairs:
“Those recovery efforts are complicated by shortages of contractors (and) shortages of building supplies,” she told Missourinet. “Folks just sometimes need a little bit more time in order to go through that, you know, recovery process to get their homes put back into shape before insurance companies start taking those actions.”
Nelson’s department has received 1,075 homeowner complaints so far this year – 85 of them for cancellation or non-renewal of coverage. Those 85 complaints were not storm specific, though.
She also told Missourinet that it’s normal for insurance companies to manage risks to keep premiums as affordable as possible.
“This type of not-renewal activity is not necessarily unusual,” she said. “What makes (this) unusual – and in my mind makes it unacceptable this year – is just by virtue of the fact that our state has suffered so greatly this year with, again, such widespread storms and devastating events.”
Nelson said she does not have a list of which insurance companies have been cancelling and not renewing homeowner policies but she bases her actions on local media reports in areas impacted by storms this year. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that State Farm Insurance sent a cancellation notice to a homeowner in Arnold after he made weather damage claims from both 2022 and from March of this year.
DCI has already recovered over $28 million for consumers this year and urges anyone facing insurance issues to visit insurance.mo.gov.
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