$1.4 million recovered for state?s homeowners after storm

The Missouri Department of Insurance has recovered an additional $1.4 million for homeowners damaged by a massive hailstorm April 10 the largest recovery from a single storm in agency history.

According to an MDI news release, the recovery effort combined intense staff work on consumer complaints with a clear standard for repairs that provides greater protection for all Missouri homeowners.

Through early November, MDI has helped mainly north St. Louis County homeowners get financial relief in 67 percent of the 484 complaints closed.

Homeowners are receiving larger settlements at double the normal rate, averaging $4,177 more than the insurers' original offers.

The first wave of consumer complaints occurred in June when some insurers refused to re-side entire homes when hail seriously damaged part of the house even though the proposed replacement siding did not match in color, texture and other qualities. The department had not intervened in similar instances of mismatching before.

MDI Director Scott B. Lakin, however, notified insurers that MDI expected full, matching replacement to preserve the value of not only individual homes, but neighborhoods. "As a middle-class homeowner myself, I know that large areas of mismatched siding would have done serious damage to long-term property values for everyone," Lakin said.

He added, "Our position was necessary to maintain the confidence of homeowners in their coverage and their company. Homeowners genuinely believed they had been paying for this kind of protection. Many companies acted in good faith and did provide full replacement. A few did not."

Many homeowners learned of MDI's services through broadcast and newspaper coverage of complaints and several town-hall meetings, sponsored by the Florissant mayor and attended by Lakin and MDI staff. MDI can help resolve these disputes with an insurer without the cost and delays of court action.

Through mid-October, MDI received 1,401 inquiries that developed into 556 formal complaints. Of the formal complaints, 72 remain unresolved, but they arrived only recently.

A property and casualty insurance trade group announced in June that the hailstorm was the most costly insured disaster in state history with a projected $700 million in losses.