OAR 836-071-0267: Incidental Charges for Customer Services; Personal, Commercial Lines

(1) This rule establishes incidental charges that an insurance producer may impose for customer services in connection with the transaction of insurance. For the purpose of this rule, personal lines insurance is property and casualty insurance coverage sold to individuals and families for primarily noncommercial purposes. (2) An insurance producer may impose an incidental charge established in this rule on a customer only if the insurance producer has given written notice to the customer that the insurance producer may impose incidental charges authorized by this rule. The notice must disclose all incidental charges that the insurance producer may impose and the service provided for each incidental charge. The insurance producer must give the notice to a customer before providing any service for which an incidental charge may be imposed, but not later than at the time of application or the renewal before the insurance producer commences imposing the incidental charges. The written notice requirement does not apply to the binding or issuance of a policy. At the time an insurance producer charges an incidental charge under this rule, the insurance producer must clearly disclose to the customer the amount of the incidental charge and the service for which the incidental charge is imposed. (3) An insurance producer may impose an incidental charge for rewriting or reinstating a policy that was cancelled by the insurer because of an action or inaction of the customer, such as nonpayment of premium or failure to renew according to policy terms, as provided in this section. An insurance producer may not impose the incidental charge for the first rewriting or reinstatement of the policy. The incidental charges are as follows: (a) A charge not to exceed $25 for personal lines insurance. (b) A charge not to exceed $100 for commercial insurance. (4) An insurance producer may impose an incidental charge for taking a payment of premium in cash, in an amount not to exceed $10. (5) An insurance producer may impose an incidental charge as authorized by ORS 30.701 for handling and collecting on a check from a customer that is returned for insufficient funds. (6) An insurance producer may impose an incidental charge for the actual cost of providing photographic or inspection services to a customer in connection with issuing or amending insurance coverage, but the incidental charge may not exceed: (a) $7.50 for the services in connection with issuing or amending personal insurance coverage. (b) $45 for the services in connection with issuing or amending commercial insurance coverage. (7) An insurance producer may impose an incidental charge for the actual cost of obtaining a motor vehicle report from the Motor Vehicle Division of the Oregon Department of Transportation or from the comparable agency in another state. (8) An insurance producer may impose an incidental charge not to exceed $5 for preparing a duplicate insurance identification card at the request of a customer, when the customer requests the preparation of the card instead of waiting for the insurance identification card prepared by the insurer. (9) An insurance producer may impose an incidental charge not to exceed $10 for each endorsement to a personal lines insurance policy that is in addition to the first six other endorsements by the insurance producer to the policy within a six-month period. (10) An insurance producer may impose an incidental charge not to exceed $5 for obtaining a duplicate SR22 filing on behalf of a customer when the customer has lost or misplaced the original SR22 filing. (11) An insurance producer may impose an incidental charge not to exceed $5 for each certificate of commercial insurance coverage issued by the insurance producer that is in addition to the first 20 certificates requested by the customer for the commercial insurance policy during a policy period.