Montemayor Sends Open Letter to Farmers Homeowners Policyholders

In the wake of Farmers Insurance Group of Companies’ decision to quit the Texas homeowners market, Texas Insurance Commissioner Jose Montemayor released the following open letter to Farmers policyholders:

Farmers’ decision to leave the homeowners insurance market in Texas is a tremendous disservice to its 700,000 policyholders and to hundreds of Farmers’ loyal agents who will suffer economically from this unjustifiable action.

In light of Farmers’ public announcement, here are some things that Farmers’ policyholders should know.

Farmers cannot cancel your policy mid-term. It must wait until your policy’s anniversary expiration date to “non-renew” it. Texas law requires Farmers to give you a full 30 days’ notice before declining to renew your policy.

Companies still in the homeowners market have more than ample financial capacity to absorb the policyholders that Farmers says it plans to drop. TDI has been talking to a number of companies about writing more homeowners insurance, and these conversations have been encouraging.

TDI’s new www.helpinsure.com Web site can take your application for homeowners coverage and place it before dozens of companies that indicated to us in a survey this week that they are accepting new business. People without Internet access can call 1-866-695-6873 to submit their applications. Agents also are tapping helpinsure.com to find new customers. This week, we added a feature to help consumers find agents in their communities who can sell homeowners policies.

Again, our sole objective is compliance with Texas insurance laws, and we look forward to resolving our differences in a responsible manner that will be fair to both Farmers and its policyholders.

Jose Montemayor,
Texas Commissioner of Insurance

Topics Texas Agribusiness Homeowners