The Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance publishes every auto insurance rate change filed in the state, and one recent posting shows a 12.700% increase effective April 21, 2026. It is public, it is searchable, and almost no Tennessee driver ever looks at it.
What is actually being published?
TDCI posts monthly automotive policy rate change information filed by insurers through SERFF — the System for Electronic Rate and Form Filing — specifically "to help consumers better understand and compare rate changes among insurers." The page lists the filing company, the filing number, the percentage change and the effective date. In the listing current as of May 2026, Shelter Mutual Insurance Company appears with a 12.700% change effective 04/21/2026, alongside filings from Integon General Insurance Corporation, First Acceptance Insurance Company of Tennessee and others.
Why one number on a state web page matters to your bill
Because a filed rate change is not a bill — it is a schedule. Rate revisions apply at renewal, which means the increase filed in the spring lands on Tennessee households months later, usually with no explanation attached beyond a new premium. If your renewal jumped this summer and nothing changed on your driving record, the reason may simply be that your carrier's filing took effect and yours renewed on the wrong side of the date.
Are homeowners filings doing the same thing?
Yes, and less evenly. Tennessee homeowners filings in 2026 have been redistributing rate between perils rather than raising everything at once. One carrier's homeowners revision held its overall change at 0.0% while moving Weather/Wind +7.5%, Fire +5.9%, Water -16.0%, Theft -27.5% and Liability -1.9%, affecting 6,148 policyholders and $20.1 million in written premium effective Feb. 28, 2026. A second filing sought a 4.9% overall increase across 973 policyholders — but individual policy impacts ranged from decreases of more than 30% to increases approaching 80%. The headline number in a filing tells you almost nothing about your own policy.
What Tennessee homeowners are paying now
Tennessee homeowners pay an average of $3,408 a year, the seventh-highest in the country and roughly 42% above the national average of $2,395, per a LendingTree report released in June 2026. Wind exposure is doing much of that work, which is why the peril-level shifts above matter more than any single overall percentage.
What to do with this information
- Check your renewal date against filing effective dates. A policy renewing days after a rate revision takes the full increase; one renewing days before buys you a year.
- Ask for the peril breakdown, not the overall number. A 0.0% overall change can still mean +7.5% on wind for your roof.
- Re-verify discounts annually. Bundling home and auto remains the largest reliable discount in Tennessee, and auto rules changed this year.
- Reprice after any life change — a teen driver added or removed, a paid-off vehicle, a move across a rating territory, a roof replacement.
- Remember Tennessee has no FAIR Plan. There is no state insurer of last resort here; if admitted carriers decline the risk, the route is the surplus lines market through a licensed broker.
- Know your non-renewal rights. Under the Cancellation of Personal Risk Insurance Act (Tenn. Code § 56-7-1901), insurers must give at least 30 days' written notice of non-renewal of a personal risk policy, including homeowners; § 56-7-1902 governs your right to a written reason.
The bottom line
Tennessee rate changes are public before they are personal. A 12.7% auto filing and a 0.0% homeowners filing that quietly moved wind up 7.5% are the same story: pricing is getting more segmented, not more uniform. If your policy has not been reviewed against the current filings, you are being priced by an older model than the one your carrier is using today.
Sources: Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance, monthly auto policy rate change postings via SERFF (listing current as of May 2026); Tennessee homeowners rate and rule filings summarized in public rate filing records, effective February 28 and March 10 / May 11, 2026; LendingTree home insurance cost report, June 2026; Insurance Information Institute FAIR Plan inventory, May 2026; Tennessee Code Annotated §§ 56-7-1901 and 56-7-1902.
