This is interesting from The Insurance Blog (Nov 5, 2009):
"An unexpected piece in the Chinese drywall puzzle has just been uncovered. Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty has made clear that in his opinion insurers have no obligation to cover defective Chinese drywall because it is not a covered peril. The Sarasota Herald Tribune reports that at a meeting with state legislators earlier this week, McCarty told them the insurance industry is not responsible for the drywall problem and that ultimately the federal government would have to come up with a funding solution. The November 4 article by Lloyd Dunkelberger quotes McCarty saying: “This is not a covered claim. This is not a covered peril. We need to come up with a plan for a funding source to take care of this.” McCarty described the Chinese drywall issue as a “very, very significant problem,” and stated that the financial responsibility lies with the Chinese drywall manufacturers rather than insurance companies. […] "
Pasted from <http://www.coverage4usa.com/insuran...og/?cat=44>
Commissioner McCarty might be trying to get ahead of this problem because the Florida taxpayers through Citizens have such a large stake in the outcome.
And this.
Citizens received a claim involving CD. They denied the claim and then told the home owners that unless the CD was removed their policy would not be renewed. Now after a lot of bad press and thinking more about it Citizens says they will renew the policy.
John Kuczwanski, public information manager for Citizens:
"The initial determination to nonrenew was due to the existence of known damage (corrosion) that could lead to a greater risk for a claim filed for a covered peril (fire or water leak)," Kuczwanski wrote in an e-mailed explanation. "Based on the concerns of the policyholder, we conducted a more in-depth inspection and determined the progression of the corrosion had not reached a point to where there were significant concerns that a covered peril claim would be filed. Therefore we rescinded the notice of non-renewal."
Pasted from <http://www.insurancejournal.com/new...104770.htm>
It sounds like most of the Chinese drywall was imported for home builders and went into new homes. None of it was ever sold by Home Depot or Loew's, so I would guess that very little of it went into repairs and even less into insurance claim repairs and even less than that into insurance claim repairs where the insurer had any influence on the repairing contractor and what drywall was used.
Snappy
Drink up Shriners.