The Texas Department of Insurance says 30,000 people have lost property insurance as a result of a company based in Florida becoming insolvent. A court in Florida ordered Weston Property and Casualty Insurance to liquidate and end operations by September 7.
TDI says 23,000 of Weston's customers in Texas live in the "Designated Catastrophe Zone" along the coast. That area includes all of 14 counties and part of Harris County, which includes Houston.
“After learning that thousands of Texans in coastal areas could be without necessary insurance coverage due to no fault of their own, we issued this emergency rule. Without TDI’s emergency rule, many Weston policyholders would not be able to get wind or hail insurance for this hurricane season," TDI Commissioner Cassie Brown wrote in a statement.
The emergency rule allows eligible Weston policyholders to apply for coverage with the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association, which offers wind and hail policies. People would have a $0 premium the first three months and can purchase a policy through November 6.
TDI says people can buy policies even if a storm is already in the Gulf of Mexico. Details are available here.
The Texas Property and Casualty Insurance Guaranty Association says Weston customers in the state will receive a refund of their premiums that would have applied to their policies after September 7.
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