Missouri's big storm-insurance bill died — and it had excluded associations anyway

Missouri · Legislation

Missouri's big storm-insurance bill died — and it had excluded associations anyway

2026-09-12 · Missouri · Legislation · Did not pass

What happened. A five-part Missouri storm-insurance package — a $12 million retrofit grant fund, mandatory premium discounts for fortified construction, a free disaster-claim mediation programme, limits on refusing coverage because of a roof's age, and a ban on assigning insurance benefits — got a Senate committee “do pass” and then died when the session adjourned on 15 May 2026.¹

The bills were SB 1543 (Senator Sandy Crawford, chair of the Senate Select Committee on Property Taxes and the State Tax Commission) and its House companion HB 3328 (Representative David Casteel, High Ridge). One piece of the package did become law, inside a different bill — more on that below.

The five parts

Missouri Stronger Homes Act (proposed sections 379.3100–379.3140) — grants to retrofit or build to the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety FORTIFIED Home High Wind and Hail standards; maximum $15,000 per individual; funded by a $12 million transfer from the Insurance Dedicated Fund on 1 July 2027, then up to 20 percent of the fund's remaining balance annually, capped at $2 million a year, through 1 July 2037.
Mandatory premium discounts — for policies issued, continued or renewed on or after 1 January 2027, insurers “shall provide a premium discount or insurance rate reduction” to insureds who retrofit to FORTIFIED, but only “when the insurer has deemed the adjustments to be actuarially justified and there is significant and credible evidence of cost savings.”
Missouri Disaster Mediation Act (proposed sections 379.3000–379.3055) — a free-standing alternative dispute resolution programme for residential first-party claims arising from a declared disaster; the insurer pays the mediator and administrator; a 60-day window to demand mediation after denial.
Roof-age underwriting restrictions (proposed sections 379.162–379.163).
Post-loss assignment of benefits ban plus a 10 percent cap on public-adjuster compensation.

The roof-age provision, verbatim

From the official Senate summary of the Senate Committee Substitute:

“This act prohibits an insurer from refusing, cancelling, refusing to renew a homeowner's insurance policy on a residential structure with a roof less than fifteen years old solely because of the age of the roof.”

For roofs over fifteen years, an owner-paid inspection showing “five years or more of useful life remaining” would have blocked a refusal on roof-age grounds. In a state where hail is the dominant property peril, roof age is the single most common trigger for non-renewal.

The exclusion associations need to read

The mediation programme — the one genuinely new consumer remedy in the package — was drafted to leave association claims out. From the same official summary:

“The alternative dispute resolution program is not available to commercial insurance, property insurance covering multiple family dwellings, motor vehicle insurance, or liability coverage contained within property insurance policies.”

A condominium master policy is property insurance covering multiple family dwellings. So had the package passed as drafted, a single-family owner in a subdivision would have had a free, insurer-funded mediation route for a disputed hail claim, and the condominium association next door — whose disputed claim is the one that turns into a special assessment on every unit — would not.

Where it stopped

13 April 2026 — House Insurance Committee public hearing on HB 3328. The bill remained in committee.
SB 1543's last status on the official record: “SCS Voted Do Pass S Insurance and Banking Committee (6512S.05C).” That is a committee vote on a Senate Committee Substitute — not a floor vote, not passage.
15 May 2026 — the session adjourned at the constitutional cutoff. Both bills died.

Had either passed, its pieces were written to take effect between 1 January 2027 and 1 July 2027, with the Stronger Homes and mediation provisions set to expire in 2038.

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Missouri's big storm-insurance bill died — and it had excluded associations anyway

The five parts

The roof-age provision, verbatim

The exclusion associations need to read

Where it stopped

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