The Washington state legislature has recently adopted Rule 2025-05 (“R 2025-05”), updating the minimum standards for claims handling in Washington, applicable to automobile and homeowners’ insurance claims. The key highlights are as follows:
- The Commissioner removed an additional condition that required violations of the claims handling minimum standards to be violated with such frequency as to indicate a general business practice in order to be deemed an unfair claims settlement practice.
- Under RCW 48.30.010, a single violation of WAC 284-30-300 constitutes a statutorily unfair trade practice.
- The insurer is to conduct a reasonable investigation before any denial of coverage and before any refusal to pay all or part of a claim.
- The definition of “investigation” has been revised.
- It is unreasonable to solely rely on a database for an investigation, which includes estimating software or a benchmark that pulls data from a database.
- It is unfair to any claimant to delay an investigation or claim payment by requiring a claimant to submit substantially the same information multiple times.
- The Commissioner updated what is fair and transparent when claimants have a loss that requires them to protect the covered item from further damage.
- The Commissioner included language that a violation of the following sections is an unfair and/or deceptive trade practice:
- WAC 284-30-340; WAC 284-30-350; WAC 284-30-355; WAC 284-30-360; WAC 284-30-370; and WAC 284-20-380
- A summary of additional changes may be found here: CES for R2025-05
Please note that this adopted rule becomes effective on October 18, 2026.
For any questions related to the above referenced rule in Washington, please contact Westmont Associates!