BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — Thousands of Louisiana homeowners are looking for new home insurance policies after multiple insurance cancellations in a matter of days.

“$714 dollars is the money I risked,” said Jeri Gill, a Livingston Parish resident. “I felt like there was no one there to tell me what to do.”

Thousands in Louisiana are in the same boat as Gill. She is looking for new homeowners insurance after her company, Lighthouse Excalibur, informed her that her insurance would be canceled as of June 22nd. Before the cancellation notice, Gill already paid a portion of her renewal in late May.

“I did not get a notice that they were canceling all policies until last week,” she said.

The Louisiana Department of Insurance provided the following statement regarding the cancellation:

Lighthouse Excalibur is a failed insurer that was placed into receivership in April of this year. The company had approximately 29,000 policyholders when it was placed into receivership. Policyholders were notified by the Receiver — the person operating the company while it is in receivership — that their policy with Lighthouse would be canceled effective June 22. Policyholders who have not found a new insurance policy yet need to contact an insurance agent now for help finding a policy before their coverage is canceled. For help finding an agent, please visit ldi.la.gov and click on the Consumers tab at the top of the page, then select “Find Agents/Adjusters.”

Louisiana Department of Insurance

“We had about 30 days or so to move about 600 different homeowner insurance policies,” said Aundrea Allen, an independent insurance agent in Baton Rouge.

Allen said there’s been an excessive amount of claims in Louisiana due to storms and natural disasters. Now, the companies are pulling out of Louisiana due to litigation. She said the state could have done a better job of alerting homeowners.

“We still have a couple hundred more that need to be rewritten or moved by the end of next… basically in a week on the 22nd,” said Allen. “They’re canceling policies with very little notice and we then don’t have very many carriers to move those policies to.”

Gill was able to find affordable home insurance.

“I had to do something and do it quickly or risk being vulnerable to another disaster,” she said.

Now she is waiting on a refund for the deposit made just four weeks before she received Lighthouse’s notice.

“I may never see that money again, I don’t know,” said Gill.

Allen is offering her assistance to those impacted. Her agency can be reached by calling 225-300-4500. The Louisiana Department of Insurance will have a press conference discussing the matter on Thursday afternoon.