ATLANTA — Homeowners were shocked when they opened their mail recently and found a notice of non-renewal from Farmers Insurance regarding their home policy.
Susan Albritton reached out to 11Alive after receiving a letter that her policy wouldn't be renewed due to the age of the roof.
"I was stunned," Albritton said. "I've never heard of it."
11Alive immediately reached out to the Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner John King to see if Farmers Insurance could do this to the thousands of existing customers across Georgia.
"Completely unreasonable, it's just really sloppy business," King said.
The notice stated if the home's roof was more than 15 years old, the policy would be dropped. Each homeowner is also being required to show proof of when the roof was put on as well.
“It was brought to our attention last week that Farmers Insurance had alerted their customers that they would be non-renewing any homeowner policies on homes with roofs over 15 years old in blatant violation of Georgia law,” said King.
“My office immediately took action, ordering Farmers to reverse course and rescind these scheduled non-renewals. I am extremely disappointed with the actions of Farmers and am contemplating further disciplinary actions at this time," he added.
The Commissioner said under Georgia law, insurers are only allowed to change their underwriting guidelines for new business and cannot non-renew existing customers under new guidelines.
Farmers Insurance issued the following statement after the commissioner gave them 24 hours to reverse course.
"We have decided not to move forward with our plan to non-renew a limited number of homeowners policies with older roofs. We have begun to notify affected customers of this decision." -Farmers Insurance spokesman
Albritton was relieved when we reached back out to her to let her know the news.
"That's phenomenal. I am really pleased with it. And, I'm still really shocked," she explained.
The commissioner said Farmers Insurance will remain on his office's radar.
"They're going to stay there for a while until we have some concrete proof they're changing their way," King said.
"My job is to police insurance companies to make sure they're behaving according to state law," he said.
The commissioner said if Farmers Insurance does not follow through on reversing this non-renewal notice he can issue fines, impose sanctions or even revoke their license to operate in Georgia.