BILL NUMBER: S5126

SPONSOR: SANDERS
 
TITLE OF BILL:  An act to repeal certain provisions of the insurance
law relating to anti-arson applications

 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:

The purpose of this bill is to repeal section 3403 of the insurance law
and its accompanying regulations.

 
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:

Section 1 - Repeals section 3403 of the insurance law

Section 2- Directs Superintendent of Department of Financial services to
repeal all rules and regulations which implement section 340 3 of insur-
ance law

Section 3- Establishes the effective date

              

 
JUSTIFICATION:

In 1981 when New York first enacted its anti-arson application law

(originally section 168-j of the insurance law, now section 3403), arson
for profit was a significant economic and societal problem. New York's
anti-arson application law was enacted to give insurers ownership and
property valuation information to assist in the investigation of arson
for profit and to require property owners to sign a fraud statement.
However, present-day arson investigation techniques no longer rely on
the anti-arson application form to determine ownership and property
valuation and fraud statements are collected through other means when
adjusting a loss. Insurers have access to a multitude of third-party
sources to determine ownership and property values. Since the informa-
tion collected on the form is no longer used, completing and collecting
the form (which is required for both new and renewed insurance poli-
cies)creates a significant burden for both consumers and insurers.
Consumers suffer because completing the form is burdensome and insurance
carriers must cancel in force policies when the form is not returned,
which means that the policyholder may be without coverage. Furthermore,
consumers hear the ultimate administrative cost of having insurers rein-
state policies that have been cancelled when they fail to renew the
anti-arson application. Insurers are burdened by the inordinate amount
of time spent tracking down the anti-arson application from property
owners. Recognizing that the reason that this law was originally enacted
no longer exists, both Rochester and Buffalo repealed the law in recent
years.

 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

2017: A9707-Referred to Insurance

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

None

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.