BILL ANALYSIS

H.B. 3194

By: Perez

Insurance

Committee Report (Unamended)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

The 86th Legislature passed legislation that allowed the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (TWIA) to implement a new automatic renewal process for residential and commercial property insurance policies. If there are no changes in coverage, policyholders can remit payment directly to TWIA and renew their policy without agent involvement. While this has worked well for residential property policies, commercial property policies can be more complex. Automatic renewal of commercial property policies can create additional work for TWIA, the policyholder, and the agent to update the policies after the renewal. H.B. 3194 seeks to address this issue by excluding non-residential insurance policies from TWIA's automatic renewal process.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE IMPACT

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly create a criminal offense, increase the punishment for an existing criminal offense or category of offenses, or change the eligibility of a person for community supervision, parole, or mandatory supervision.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution.

ANALYSIS

H.B. 3194 amends the Insurance Code to exclude any non-residential insurance policies from the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association's automatic renewal process.

EFFECTIVE DATE

September 1, 2023.