By: Zaffirini  S.B. No. 965
         (In the Senate - Filed March 3, 2021; March 11, 2021, read
  first time and referred to Committee on Business & Commerce;
  March 31, 2021, reported adversely, with favorable Committee
  Substitute by the following vote:  Yeas 9, Nays 0; March 31, 2021,
  sent to printer.)
Click here to see the committee vote
 
  COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR S.B. No. 965 By:  Nichols
 
 
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  Section 2251.1025, Insurance Code, is repealed.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.
 
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