The Connecticut House of Representatives has voted in favor of a $12 annual surcharge on every residential homeowner's policy to financially help hundreds, if not thousands, of homeowners with crumbling foundations.
The bill was approved Saturday, 97-to-42. It now awaits Senate action.
Lawmakers from eastern and central Connecticut gave emotional pleas for the surcharge, which may generate about $10 million annually for a limited 10-year-period.
Republican Rep. Tim Ackert of Coventry spoke about how his neighbors just paid off their mortgage last year, only to have a contractor knock down the structure and build a new home.
The concrete foundations are failing because of an iron sulfide, pyrrhotite, which has reacted naturally with oxygen and water.
Lawmakers say insurers and the federal government also need to help the homeowners.
