California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara has banned insurance companies from canceling coverage for some 750,000 homeowners affected by fires at airports, bridges and lines.
The order, issued Thursday, protects residents in wildfire areas or contiguous ZIP codes from insurance renewals or cancellations for one year from the date of the emergency declaration issued by Gov. Gavin Newsom earlier this month.
“Wildfire survivors don’t have to worry about insurance,” Lara said in a written statement.
The fires in Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside counties that began this month have burned more than 100,000 acres and destroyed more than 100 homes.
In August, Lara issued a bulletin protecting the more than 185,000 firefighters affected by the Park, Borel and Tillo fires in Kern County and Northern California. The bulletins protect homeowners, regardless of whether they have suffered a loss.
Consumers can Department of Insurance website to see if your ZIP code is included in the moratorium.
The department is sending staff to the regions to help survivors file claims. Consumers should contact the department at 800-927-4357 or by chat or email. insurance.ca.gov if they believe their insurer is breaking the law.
Lara authored the 2018 legislation requiring moratoriums.
The commissioner’s action comes as he seeks to enact his Sustainable Insurance Strategy, a package of executive actions designed to stabilize California’s insurance market amid a growing number of climate-related wildfires.
The fires prompted insurers to pull out of the market and forced many homeowners in communities at risk of wildfires to switch to the State Fair Plan, the last insurer to offer policies with benefits less than full coverage.
Lara’s reforms have been controversial, with a major consumer group saying they include giveaways to the insurance industry, which he disputes.
