Collin County Roundtable Addresses Rising Home Insurance Costs, Claim Denials

Homeowners from Plano to Richardson packed a Collin County roundtable Wednesday to confront a problem that has quietly eroded one of the most basic promises of homeownership: that when disaster strikes, your insurance company pays. What they heard from state leaders and industry representatives was damning. At least one lawmaker at the March 26 forum labeled the situation an "insurance crisis."

Representative Mihaela Plesa (D-Plano), who represents southwest Collin County in a district that includes Plano, Dallas, Allen, and Richardson, said the state of home insurance in Texas is appalling. "Texas home insurers closed nearly half of all claims without paying a dime," Plesa said. She added that "Texans are paying twice as much as the national average for home insurance, essentially getting less protections than ever when disaster strikes."

A report cited at the event says Texas home insurers have denied nearly half of all claims, while bringing in record profits through premium increases. Homeowners could see insurance premiums jump another 16 percent over the next two years due to an uptick in natural disasters and rebuilding costs, and since 2019, premiums have already jumped 55 percent.

The scale of the problem is not unique to any one neighborhood, but Collin County residents feel it acutely as the region's home values have climbed. The average cost of home insurance in Texas is $4,085 a year, $1,542 more than the national average. Texas lawmakers said a combination of rising insurance rates and frequent claim denials are getting out of control.

The human cost of those denials has a name in Richardson: Carrington, a homeowner who expected his insurance company to step in after his home suffered severe damage. That expectation went unmet. "Never seen anything like this. There was no way to stop it," Carrington said. When FOX 4 reached out in 2020, the City of Richardson denied Carrington's allegation that the city caused the problem, leaving the dispute unresolved.

The financial squeeze extends beyond existing homeowners. Rob Bhatt, a LendingTree home insurance expert, noted that the problem compounds for those trying to enter the market. "New homebuyers are facing higher interest rates, which further erodes their purchasing power," Bhatt said.

The report cited says Texas home insurers have denied nearly half of all claims while bringing in record profits through premium increases, a combination that drew calls from the roundtable for state intervention. Some lawmakers are now calling on the governor to hold the insurance industry accountable, though no concrete legislative remedy has emerged from Austin.

Plesa became the first Democrat elected to the statehouse from Collin County in thirty years when she was elected in 2022, and she has made affordability a central issue. The March 26 roundtable signaled that home insurance costs, long treated as a background expense, have become a front-line political issue for her constituents, many of whom are now weighing whether the promise of coverage written into their policies is worth the premiums they keep paying.