News: 2020 Press Release

For Release: September 3, 2020

Media Calls Only: 916-492-3566

Email Inquiries: cdipress@insurance.ca.gov

Commissioner Lara urges insurance companies to cover reimbursement costs for those displaced during wildfires

LOS ANGELES, Calif. — To assist Californians displaced by the current and recent wildfires throughout the state, Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara issued a Notice to all California property and casualty insurance companies urging them to cover Additional Living Expenses (ALE) for those policyholders who remain under mandatory evacuation or whose homes are otherwise inaccessible or uninhabitable due to the wildfires.

From the article;

"Among the many lessons for insurers coming out of Fort McMurray, one may be in how to handle claims caused by wildfires – a peril that insurers have predicted for some time will only get worse."

11/15/2018 Notice

In an effort to assist victims of the current wildfires throughout the state, Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones is calling on all property insurance companies to implement emergency expedited claims handling procedures and billing grace periods to help residents and businesses begin their recovery more quickly.

 To kill some time in this lull period & spread some knowledge, here is the scenario (or scenarios) as you see fit to make it. I will lay out the limited info as follows, and let's see where it goes.

Heavy fire loss occurs in a single family dwelling. Cov is HO-3, no issues with eff dates. Insureds have just left home about 6:00 p.m., a couple hours before fire breaks out and is discovered. High winds fan the flames and each house on either side sustain heat/smoke damage before the fire is brought under control. Let's say both neighboring houses now have some melted vinyl siding, one sided 2 years ago and the other 12 years ago. The elderly neighbor next door initially beat on the insured's door trying to see if they were OK, and burned his hand. He then rushed home to get his wheelchair bound wife out of their house, but she spends a week in the hospital with smoke inhalation related complications.

The insureds are a young couple, both smokers, with a 6 year old son. They just moved in about 2 years ago, only work in the house since they came was replacing the kitchen flooring, and adding a center island with a new cooktop on it. These were professionally installed within the past 6 months.