Your rights as a Texas insurance policyholder

Two agencies, two jobs: TDI and OPIC

TDI regulates insurers, agents and adjusters and handles complaints. Its Help Line is 800-252-3439, and the bill of rights says you have the right to call it for free for information and help with a complaint.

OPIC is a separate state agency, created in 1991, that represents the interests of Texas consumers in insurance matters. It reviews rates, rules and policy forms, can intervene in rate hearings, and publishes consumer tools such as a policy comparison tool. OPIC staff can answer questions about your policy, but OPIC represents consumers as a class and can't give legal advice or represent you personally; to file a complaint about your own claim, you go to TDI. OPIC's line is 1-877-611-6742.

Claim deadlines your company must meet

For a claim on your own home or auto policy, the bill of rights says the company must:

• Within 15 days: acknowledge the claim, start investigating and ask for anything else it needs.
• Within 15 business days of getting everything it needs: approve or deny in writing. It can extend that up to 45 days if it tells you it needs more time and why.
• Within 5 business days of telling you the claim is approved: pay it.
• TDI can add 15 days to these deadlines after a weather-related catastrophe.

Claim rights that are easy to miss

If your company misses those deadlines, the bill of rights says you may be able to collect the claim amount, interest and attorney's fees. It must explain a denial in writing, and it can't refuse to pay without a reasonable investigation.

It can only ask for information reasonably needed for the claim, and it can't ask for your federal tax returns unless it has a court order or the claim involves fire, lost profits or lost income. A home policy can't bar you from hiring a licensed public adjuster.

If your mortgage lender receives a claim check, it must notify you within 10 days of what you need to do to release the money, and act within 10 days after you ask for it. If someone sues you, your company must tell you in writing about the first settlement offer within 10 days and about any settlement within 30 days.

Auto policies add two more: you choose the repair shop (the company only has to pay a reasonable amount), and if someone else caused the damage, the company must try to recover your deductible within one year, refund it, or tell you it won't pursue it so you can.

Limits on cancellation and nonrenewal

A home insurer can't nonrenew you because of weather or other natural-cause claims, claims that weren't paid, your credit alone, or the age of the house (though the condition of the roof, wiring or plumbing can count). For most other claims, it needs two claims in three years plus a written warning before a third. An auto policy must generally be renewed until it has been in force for a year, and a single hail, flood, animal-strike or other not-at-fault claim can't by itself be the reason for nonrenewal.

New since January 2026: reasons in writing, without asking

The bill of rights still says you can ask for a written explanation of a cancellation or nonrenewal. A 2025 law goes further. House Bill 2067 rewrote Insurance Code Section 551.002 so that an insurer that declines a completed application, cancels or refuses to renew must give you a written statement of the reasons that fully explains the decision. It applies to applications made and policies issued or renewed on or after January 1, 2026.

Senate Bill 458, also from 2025, requires personal auto and residential property policies delivered or renewed on or after January 1, 2026 to include an appraisal provision for disputes over the amount of a loss. TDI held a hearing on proposed rules for that process in June 2026.

How to use your rights

• Find the bill of rights and the "Important Notice" that came with your policy, or download the current version from OPIC.
• Write down dates: when you reported the claim, when the company acknowledged it, and when you sent the last document it asked for. Those dates start the deadlines.
• Keep every letter and email, and make notes of phone calls with names and dates.
• If a deadline passes, cite it in writing to the company, then call TDI at 800-252-3439 or file a complaint.
• For a dispute over the amount of loss, ask whether your policy's appraisal clause applies.