ADJUSTING AHEAD OF SCHEDULE; GRACE PERIOD TO EXPIRE

The Louisiana Department of Insu-rance reported that adjusters in Plaque-mines and St. Ber-nard parishes are ahead of schedule, working under an adjusting program implemented in the parishes last month. According to Commissioner of Insurance Robert Wooley, the program, or “grid system,” calls for adjusters to go neighborhood-by-neighborhood in a coordinated effort to ensure no properties that need assessing are skipped.

St. Bernard and Plaquemines, which were badly damaged by Hurricane Katrina, were divided into small grids containing about 1,000 households each. The grid map for St. Bernard Parish has 25 grids; Plaquemines was subdivided into nine grids.

Adjusters started with Grid 1 on Oct. 17 and in one week visited more than 90 percent of the area properties. Many insurers completed adjusting early in Grid 1 and continued on to Grid 2 and beyond during that first week. A few companies reported in early November that they have completed all of their adjusting in each parish. Other insurers will continue to report weekly to the DOI until their claims adjusting within the grid system is complete.

The Emergency Rules requiring insurance companies to give policyholders affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita an automatic extension of time to pay their insurance premiums without incurring late fees, penalties, cancellations or non-renewals are set to expire on Nov. 30 and Dec. 31, 2005. The DOI said some companies allow insureds to pay in installments rather than a lump sum and advised policyholders to check with their insurance company for payment information.

The Emergency Rules can be accessed via the department’s Web site at www.ldi.state.la.us.