Acting Maryland Insurance Commissioner Marie Grant told the House Environment and Transportation Committee on Friday that homeowners insurance underwriting in Maryland is tightening and the agency is preparing a ZIP-code level data analysis to inform next steps.

Grant, who identified herself as "acting insurance commissioner subject to a Senate confirmation," said the Maryland Insurance Administration (MIA) regulates more than $46,000,000,000 in insurance business and reviews homeowners filings to ensure rates are not inadequate, excessive or unfairly discriminatory. "Insurance is a promise. It's a contract of a risk," she said, adding that solvency monitoring is central to the agency’s work.

The MIA’s filings and market-conduct work show several trends the agency described as early indicators of market strain. The regulator reported 116 homeowners insurers provided annual statement data for 2023 and said underwriters are writing fewer new homeowners policies while company-initiated nonrenewals increased by more than 60 percent. Grant cautioned that the absolute counts remain relatively small — "below 10,000" nonrenewals — but that the rise bears watching.

The MIA also said insurers are applying more stringent underwriting criteria nationwide and in Maryland. Among measures cited: distance-from-coast rules (carriers declining risks within roughly 500 feet up to several miles of coastline), age limits on roofs and homes, higher or mandatory hurricane/wind deductibles and tighter standards for mobile and manufactured homes.

Joy Hatchett, deputy commissioner, fielded consumer-protection questions and described two enforcement paths: individual consumer-complaint investigations and targeted market-conduct exams when complaint patterns emerge. "If an individual comes to us and says for some reason no one in this neighborhood or I can't get insurance with this particular company and I believe that they are discriminating, we would conduct an individual investigation," Hatchett said. She added that agents also sometimes notify the MIA when they see problematic practices.

Grant said Maryland participates in a National Association of Insurance Commissioners-led climate resilience effort and that the MIA responded to an NAIC property and casualty market data request that will provide ZIP-code level information. The administration expects to refine that data and deliver it for analysis in late March to early April, she said.

On regulatory tools already in place, Grant noted an existing requirement in Maryland law that homeowners insurers must offer at least one actuarially justified premium discount for qualifying resiliency improvements. She said the administration also publishes consumer guides and has opened targeted work on manufactured and mobile-home insurance in coastal counties.

The committee pressed the agency on anti‑discrimination safeguards, credit-based rating, surplus lines carriers and whether the MIA can recommend statutory changes. Grant and Hatchett said Maryland law bars unfair discrimination and the MIA reviews rate filings and underwriting factors; they said deeper ZIP-code analysis will make it easier to detect problematic patterns. Hatchett described market-conduct examinations and the consumer-complaint process as the principal enforcement mechanisms.

The administration framed the work as the beginning of a broader conversation with the General Assembly, other state agencies and local governments. Grant said the agency views the coming ZIP-code data as central to shaping policy options to protect consumers and strengthen market stability.

Maryland’s insurer-of-last-resort, the Joint Insurance Association (JIA), remains active but holds a relatively small market share, the agency said. Surplus-lines carriers also write some high-risk coastal business; the MIA noted those policies explicitly disclose they are not regulated like admitted carriers.

The briefing produced no formal actions by the committee. Members asked for further detail on the MIA’s enforcement history, the agency’s planned climate action plan, and how state housing, building-code and zoning approaches could intersect with insurance affordability and availability.

The MIA said it will provide additional data and options to the committee once the NAIC ZIP-code information is refined.