State lawmakers want to save you money on skyrocketing home insurance rates by combating hail on the Front Range.
Speaker of the State House Julie McCluskie, of Summit County, and fellow Democrats today revealed a bill that creates a state grant for “home hardening.” This fund would pay homeowners to fortify their roofs against hail and wind.
Funding the grant are insurance companies, through a half-percent fee, but only for companies that carry “multiperil homeowners insurance policies.”
Say lawmakers in a statement, those same companies cannot pass the fee on to consumers as a surcharge. If passed these companies are “required to demonstrate in their rate filings that savings from the installation of resilient roof systems are passed through to homeowners through discounts or reduced premiums on their insurance policies,” the statement continues.
The idea is that insurance companies will lower their rates statewide, including mountain towns, if they know the Front Range is protected against hail.
Rates in Colorado have doubled since 2020 and mostly to blame is hail, not wildfire.
“We’re taking action to lower property insurance premiums and make Colorado more affordable,” McCluskie says. “As climate change intensifies, extreme weather events will make it harder and harder for homeowners to find and afford property insurance coverage. The legislation we’re unveiling today would help homeowners protect their properties from hail damage to lower premiums for everyone, stabilize Colorado’s property insurance market and reduce housing costs for Coloradans. This bill will lower rates across the state, even in High Country communities that do not typically experience hailstorms, to save Coloradans money.”
Wildfire is not completely forgotten in this bill, which also pays for a “study to analyze insurance risk in high-risk wildfire areas of the state,” the statement concludes.
Previous attempts to lower insurance costs have failed using similar but slightly different funding.