Homebuilders in Floyd and Gordon counties are showing a “100 percent positive response” to action initiated Thursday by the Home Builders Association of Georgia to remove the board of directors of Builders Insurance, according to Ted Noe, owner of L&N Custom Homes and president of the Gordon County Home Builders Association.
Builders Insurance was started by HBAG in the early 1990s to provide affordable workers compensation and other types of insurance exclusively to its builder members and local builders associations across the state. Policyholders own it in a manner similar to credit unions’ being owned by members.
But since 2000, “premiums have skyrocketed while dividends to policyholders/owners have plummeted from 13.6 percent of premiums to 1.5 percent,” while “Builders Insurance … has paid excessive salaries, fees and indirect compensation to its (nine) directors, reported at more than $1.9 million in 2006 and 2007 alone,” according to HBAG.
“When we asked for accountability and transparency, we got increasing and increasing and increasing resistance,” said Ed Phillips, HBAG executive vice president.
To remove the board, members must give HBAG their proxy to do so within 60 days.
“I think that’s not going to be a problem,” Noe said.
