NY Fair Plan To Send Cancel Notices Thursday

By Daniel Hays

NU Online News Service, May 12, 10:47 a.m. EDT?New York's Fair Plan pool, which saw its operating authority expire April 30, said that if the legislature doesn't renew that authority, it will begin mailing out policy non-renewal notices this coming Thursday.

Officially titled the New York Property Insurance Underwriting Association, NYPIUA has been caught in the crossfire of a dispute between the Democrat-controlled Assembly and Republican-led State Senate.

The Senate Insurance Committee Chairman James Seward, R- Milford, is unwilling to approve a measure reestablishing NYPIUA, unless it includes a provision making it easier for changes in auto premium rates without prior regulatory approval. Mr. Seward objects to "piecemeal" insurance legislation, a spokesperson said.

In the Assembly Insurance Committee Chairman Alexander "Pete" Grannnis, D-Manhattan, has said the auto insurance provision is "intolerable" because it would increase rates.

NYPIUA, which provides coverage for 56,000 homes and businesses that can't get coverage in the private market said this coming Thursday it will begin issuing about 225 non-renewal notices per day, beginning with those policies due to expire after midnight June 29.

The agency, since April 30, has stopped binding new business and also taking Coastal Market Assistance Program applications issued with voluntary market wrap-around endorsement policies.

Insurers, who voluntarily participate in C-MAP, are offered risks on a rotation basis and must accept at least one in four-writing either a "wraparound" to a NYPIUA property policy (providing liability and theft) or full homeowners coverage.

Robin Pollack, NYPIUA vice president, in answer to an e-mail inquiry that said she had no statistics on "the number of calls coming from people unable to procure insurance for closings versus inquiries on existing business.

"I do know that some brokers are holding onto applications in anticipation of our extension, thereby leaving some homeowners/businessowners temporarily without coverage," she wrote.

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NY Fair Plan To Send Cancel Notices Thursday

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