HUD Rule Will Raise Costs Of Homeowners Insurance

"To be clear, NAMIC and its members do not condone unfair discrimination in any aspect of our business," Grande said. "Every state and territorial jurisdiction already enforces laws and regulations to appropriately protect consumers from unfair discrimination, and we support all of the regulatory provisions that appropriately define and enforce this critically important goal. However, at no point has HUD offered any evidence of any case where any state regulation of insurance has failed to find and stop discrimination, or even attempted to justify its intrusion into what is, under federal law, the jurisdiction of the states."

Throughout the rulemaking process, NAMIC voiced strong concern about applying the disparate impact standard to insurance.

"Since this rule was first proposed in November of 2011, NAMIC has warned against the disastrous consequences of imposing the disparate impact standard on homeowners insurance," Grande said, "and sought to work with HUD throughout the rulemaking process to protect the underwriting system and its ability to distinguish between low and high risk properties and price accordingly. As those efforts were ignored, preparations were made in the event a legal challenge would be required. With the release of the final rule, NAMIC fully anticipates an industry legal challenge to overturn the rule."

TNS-LE 130209-4197569 StaffFurigay