Yonkers Insider: New York State Assemblywoman MaryJane Shimsky 92nd District: Legislation to Expand and Amend Insurance Coverage for Severe Weather Events.

 

Before the close of this year's legislative session, the Assembly and Senate passed a pair of bills designed to help homeowners prepare for severe weather events and expand insurance coverage to better support recovery efforts:

• Direct the Department of Financial Services (DFS) to conduct a study to examine any increases in property insurance premiums that may affect the affordability of property insurance coverage, any lack of availability of property insurance coverage for losses from flooding, and the possibility of supporting a private flood insurance market in New York (A.8942).
   
• Expand eligibility for the Coastal Market Assistance Program (C-MAP) to properties located within one mile of a salt-water ocean, sound, bay and inlet, as well as Lake Erie, Lake Ontario, the Saint Lawrence River, the Niagara River, and more as determined by the New York Property Insurance Underwriting Association (A.9821).

These additional bills passed the Assembly this year and may be re-introduced during the next session for a vote by both houses of the Legislature:

• Require DFS to implement the homeowner natural disaster preparedness, home safety, and loss prevention program authorized in the Enacted State Fiscal Year 2016-2017 Budget (A.0136).
   
• Authorize the sale of “parametric insurance,” which provides a set payment amount to policyholders based on the magnitude and proximity of a severe weather event to their insured property (A.10344).
   
• Provide homeowners further coverage for water damage from backed-up sewers or sump pumps by prohibiting insurance policies from excluding coverage for damage covered under a policy on the ground that the damage was caused directly or indirectly by a peril that is excluded from the policy, such as flooding (A.10343).