Not exactly. The larger problem is the rates have steadily increased in recent years for the state agency’s “insurer of last resort” for Texans who can’t get private windstorm coverage — which is a lot of them. Windstorm rates for average homeowners usually exceed $2,000 per year — on top of their regular homeowners insurance, which also totals about $1,000 per year.
If you have a mortgage, you will be required by the lender to get windstorm coverage, so you just suck it up and pay the ever-increasing bill. But for Texans who own their homes, windstorm insurance is an option.
We strongly recommend it, of course, because it’s a good thing to have in hurricane country. A home is usually the most valuable thing that a person or a couple owns. If they lose that to windstorm damage with insurance, they can be financially devastated. The same goes for a business — windstorm insurance is a very good idea.
But for Texans who aren’t wealthy — or are retired and on fixed incomes — this is a real dilemma. They want windstorm coverage, but many of them frankly cannot afford it. As rates go higher and higher each year, more and more are forced to drop the coverage and hope they are spared in the next storm. It’s a risk they don’t want to take, but it’s one they believe they can’t avoid.
This is why the latest proposal for a 5% increase in TWIA rates is so problematic. By itself, it doesn’t seem unreasonable. But it comes on top of many other annual increases to the point where we are now, where TWIA rates are just too high for many consumers.
The proposed rate increase will be considered at the TWIA board’s Aug. 3 meeting. Texans can voice their comments on this proposal via email at PublicComment@TWIA.org Comments must be submitted by noon on Friday. Once the TWIA board submits its rate request to the Texas Department of Insurance, that agency has until Oct. 15 to accept or reject the rate filing.
Texans can also make verbal public comment remotely during the Aug. 3 meeting can register and log into the meeting via Zoom. The registration form can be found at TWIA’s website, TWIA.org
Coastal residents should speak up — and demand more action on windstorm rates from the Legislature and Department of Insurance. If more private insurers in Texas were required to provide windstorm policies along with their other coverage (life, auto, home, etc.), that would lessen the pressure on TWIA rates.
Windstorm coverage is not going to be cheap. But it has to be more affordable so that more people and businesses along the coast can afford to live and work in a zone that gives so much back to the rest of the state.