MoreHOUSTON, Texas -- Texas Insurance Commissioner Jose Montemayor recently appointed a 19-member Advisory Task Force for Mold-Related Claims.
Panel members will develop recommendations on how insurers should respond to claims for water and mold damage. Members of the task force represent indoor air quality experts, consumers, bankers, real estate agents, builders, contractors, adjusters and insurers. Some homeowner insurance companies are no longer writing comprehensive homeowners insurance coverage in Texas because of the rising cost of mold-related damages.
In December, the Allstate Corporation (NYSE:ALL) said its Texas homeowners' insurance subsidiary received Texas Department of Insurance approval on endorsements providing broader coverage to the homeowners HO-A insurance policy. This would create a new product option called the "Allstate HO-A-Plus," giving Texas homeowners a viable insurance product with coverage in between the two policy forms previously available in Texas -- the minimal HO-A policy and the more comprehensive HO-B.
Allstate anticipates the HO-A-Plus will cost an average of 20 percent less than the current Allstate HO-B policy available today. It also specifies limits for remediation of mold resulting from a covered water loss at $5,000.
HO-A-Plus will be the primary product offered by Allstate to Texas homeowners customers beginning in 2002. Allstate anticipates offering it to new customers in late January and to current Allstate HO-B customers at renewal beginning in March.
