Illinois has a new deal for home insurers: raise a fire policy's renewal premium above 10%, and you'll owe policyholders 60 days' notice.
That's the core of House Bill 4273, enacted as Public Act 104-0752 after passing on August 4, 2026. Its sponsors include Reps. Thaddeus Jones, Jawaharial Williams, Maura Hirschauer, Rita Mayfield, Bob Morgan, Aaron Ortiz, Dagmara Avelar, Michelle Mussman, Suzanne Ness, Debbie Meyers-Martin, Janet Yang Rohr, Kelly Cassidy, Justin Cochran, Barbara Hernandez, Norma Hernandez and Lilian Jimenez, along with Sens. Michael Hastings, Mike Porfirio, Doris Turner, Cristina Castro, Meg Loughran Cappel, Rachel Ventura, Sara Feigenholtz, Elgie Sims, Michael Halpin, Mary Edly-Allen, Suzanne Glowiak Hilton and Christopher Belt. The law reworks the Illinois Insurance Code and adds a new article on how fire and extended coverage rates get set.
The renewal piece is simple. A carrier can't impose an increase above 10% on covered fire policies unless it gives the named insured at least 60 days' notice - by mail or electronically - before the renewal or anniversary date. The same 60-day notice applies to changes in deductibles or coverage across an entire line of business. Changes a policyholder asks for don't count. Those rules kick in for notices sent on or after July 1, 2027.
The bigger shift is a new rate-review regime. Fire and extended coverage rates can't be "excessive, inadequate, or unfairly discriminatory." A rate is inadequate if it "endangers the solvency of the insurer."
Here's the part carriers will watch: if the Department of Insurance thinks a filing falls short, it has 60 days from a complete filing to say so. Miss that deadline, and the filing is "deemed compliant" - a window the law calls "neither waivable nor subject to extension." If the Department finds a rate off-side, its final order can set a date the filing stops working and spell out any rebates owed to affected consumers. Companies get 30 days to request a hearing, and the Director's objection can be taken to court under the Administrative Review Law.
And insurers can't lean on out-of-state numbers to justify Illinois prices. A section titled "Prohibition on cost-shifting" says "[c]redible State-specific loss experience shall be used in the development of rates whenever such data is available and statistically reliable." Outside data can supplement it - but Illinois figures come first.
Both the rate article and the law itself take effect July 1, 2027.
