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Lawsuit alleges TWIA hid Hurricane Beryl claim estimate cuts
The complaint claims repair estimates were reduced by as much as 66.1%, and that electronic authorship of the changes was concealed from homeowners.
A federal racketeering lawsuit alleges Texas Windstorm Insurance Association, known as TWIA, cut Hurricane Beryl repair estimates and concealed who made the changes. Three Galveston-area homeowners sued TWIA on August 13, 2026, in the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas and seek class certification for potentially thousands of policyholders.
The plaintiffs allege a field adjuster inspected each damaged home and created repair estimates using Xactimate estimating software. A reviewer who did not visit the property then allegedly took electronic control of the file and reduced the estimates, while the lower numbers were sent to homeowners still bearing the field adjuster’s name.
The complaint alleges large reductions on the three named claims, including one estimate falling from $90,948.48 to $30,816.74, a 66.1% cut. It also alleges drops from $55,406.38 to $31,012.95, a 44.0% cut, and from $22,463.85 to $10,389.31, a 53.7% cut.
The suit says the alleged conduct involved interstate communications to conceal the economically decisive changes and characterizes it as interstate wire fraud under the federal RICO statute. It points to a logged audit trail and highlights a Xactimate collaboration prompt that, according to the filing, appears when an estimate changes hands.