Coast Homeowners Meet with State Insurance Commissioner

This week, a group of Coast homeowners made a trip to Jackson to meet one on one with the state’s insurance commissioner.

The homeowners are concerned about skyrocketing insurance rates after Hurricane Katrina and the effects on the local economy. R. Lee Flowers, Gulfport City Councilman for Ward 6, says, “A lot of people are running into situations where they’re facing the loss of their homes.”

So this week, Flowers, along with a group of other homeowners on the Coast, went to Jackson to ask the commissioner to investigate insurance companies on the Coast to determine if the high rates are justified. Flowers also says, “If there are a lot of losses down here that justify it, then it justifies it, but we have no data right now, there’s no data that the Department of Insurance has, that we’ve seen anyway, that shows justification for insurance premiums to be as high as they are.”

According to the homeowners, the commissioner promised to investigate. Flowers closes, “He said that he was gonna’ request the information. It does not take a law for him to have to do that, and we definitely appreciate that and we’re very supportive of him going ahead and asking the companies to provide that information.”

The commissioner tells News 25 his office will be ready to start investigating the insurance companies early next year.