By: Zaffirini S.B. No. 965
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to rate filing requirements for certain personal lines
insurers with low market shares.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 2251.252, Insurance Code, is amended by
amending Subsection (a) and adding Subsection (d) to read as
follows:
(a) Except as provided by Subsections (b), [and] (c), and
(d), an insurer is exempt from the rate filing and approval
requirements of this chapter if the insurer, during the calendar
year preceding the date filing is otherwise required under this
chapter, issued residential property insurance policies in this
state that accounted for less than two percent of the total amount
of premiums collected by insurers for residential property
insurance policies issued in this state, more than 50 percent of
which cover property:
(1) valued at less than $100,000; and
(2) located in an area designated by the commissioner
as underserved for residential property insurance under Chapter
2004.
(d) An insurer described by Subsection (a) that increases
the premium rates charged policyholders for a residential property
insurance product by an annual average amount of eight percent or
greater for three consecutive calendar years must file the
insurer's proposed rates in accordance with this chapter in the
calendar year following the three consecutive years and, if
applicable, obtain approval of the proposed rates as provided by
this chapter. In calculating the three consecutive calendar years'
average premium increases, an insurer is not required to consider a
year in which there is a weather-related catastrophe or other major
natural disaster that requires the commissioner to extend the
claim-handling deadlines under Section 542.059(b).
SECTION 2. Section 2251.1025, Insurance Code, is repealed.
SECTION 3. The change in law made by this Act applies only
to a rate for an insurance policy that is delivered, issued for
delivery, or renewed on or after January 1, 2022. A rate for an
insurance policy delivered, issued for delivery, or renewed before
January 1, 2022, is governed by the law as it existed immediately
before the effective date of this Act, and that law is continued in
effect for that purpose.
SECTION 4. This Act takes effect September 1, 2021.