State Farm to Sell Renters Insurance in Mississippi, But Not Homeowners

State Farm says it will resume selling renters insurance in parts of Mississippi away from the Gulf Coast.

Company spokesman David Majors said that State Farm will still not selling new homeowners policies anywhere in the state, but will sell renters policies except in Jackson, Harrison and Hancock counties.

Illinois-based State Farm stopped selling new homeowners and renters policies in February 2007, citing the avalanche of legal challenges that followed 2005’s Hurricane Katrina.

Majors says some existing policyholders, mainly north of Interstate 10, will be allowed to reduce their hurricane deductible from 5 percent of their policy value to 2 percent, if the customer had auto insurance with State Farm as of Nov. 1, 2008, and agrees to pay extra.