Archives: 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011

Gary Parsons v. Allstate Indemnity Company

Held July 30, 2009 – Docket No. INS-09-2072
Decision Issued: August 13, 2009

The insured requested a hearing to contest the nonrenewal of his homeowners policy due to two fire losses.

Held: For the insured. The Maine Property Insurance Cancellation Control Act requires the reason accompanying the notice of the intended nonrenewal to be explicit. While the stated reason merely listed two losses, Allstate argued at hearing that it was the adverse claim frequency and the insureds’ failure to exercise prudent control over the property’s loss exposures that led to the nonrenewal decision. As this reason was not conveyed by the notice of nonrenewal, the company is unable to rely upon it to support nonrenewal. As the reason only notified the insured that the policy was not being renewed due to two losses, which is not a permitted reason under section 3051, the nonrenewal action was denied.