Several changes to state insurance laws are picking up steam at the General Assembly.

One could help homeowners, one could help people who work as subcontractors, and the third would create a large tax break for a certain type of insurance business. All three are sponsored by Republican Sen. Todd Johnson, an insurance agent from Union County, and passed the Senate’s insurance committee Tuesday.

For homeowners’ insurance, Johnson said, most companies are upstanding. But there are a few “devious” businesses out there, he said, whose business model revolves around making people answer numerous questions, all unrelated to their home or their coverage, with the intent of using any wrong answer as a technicality to deny coverage when people need it.

“These unrelated questions are used years down the road to deny claims,” he said.

For example, a tree might fall on someone’s house, leading to an insurance claim. But if the company had asked that person if they had a driver’s license and they said yes, but the insurance company finds out their license was expired when they signed the papers, the company can use that to deny the person’s insurance claim.

Senate Bill 134 cracks down on that, Johnson said, by requiring companies to finish underwriting investigations in 90 days — so people don’t get taken by surprise after paying premiums for years.

Another bill, SB 123, is aimed at closing what supporters say is a loophole in insurance law that some contractors have exploited to refuse to pay their subcontractors. Republican Sen. Vicki Sawyer of Iredell County, another insurance agent, said she’s seen people lose tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. Republican Sen. Tom McInnis, an auctioneer from Pinehurst, said it’s happened to him.

“It’s been a problem for a long time,” McInnis said.

The final bill the committee approved Tuesday, SB 319, would slash taxes for a niche type of company called a risk retention group.

The tax cut proposed in the bill, from 5% to 1.85%, is even steeper than the industry itself was asking for. In a blog post last month the North Carolina Captive Insurance Association wrote it was seeking a 2% tax rate in North Carolina. Johnson said in Tuesday’s meeting that that’s what most states have, so going below 2% should encourage more such companies to move to North Carolina.