2017 Railroad Fire in Madera and Mariposa Counties
Credit: Madera County Sheriff's Office
January 4, 2018 - SACRAMENTO, Calif. - California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones today released a report on the growing problem of homeowners fire insurance availability and affordability in many areas throughout the state. The report recommends needed changes in law-the legislature should enact to effectively address the growing problem, which is likely to get worse as a result of last years devastating fires.
The California Department of Insurance is seeing an increasing number of complaints, feedback and other evidence from policyholders, consumer groups, public officials, and other stakeholders that homeowners' insurance coverage in the wildland-urban interface is increasingly difficult to obtain and, if available, is unaffordable for many. The inability to obtain affordable homeowners' insurance coverage creates great risk to the financial security of individual homeowners and the economy.
"Insurers are increasingly using computer models to assess the risk of fires for individual homes and deciding that homes in some areas face too high a risk," said Jones. "In the wake of last year's wildfires, we may see more areas of the state where insurers decline to write. The Legislature has given insurers broad latitude to decide whether and where to write fire insurance, therefore we are recommending new laws to improve fire insurance availability."
Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones directed the department to undertake its own in-depth analysis of the scope of the availability and affordability issue and develop proposed solutions to mitigate or solve these problems. This analysis includes an extensive review of consumer complaints and feedback from stakeholders, and also included an in-depth analysis of the two major wildfire-risk models.
Notes:
- Wildland-urban interface is defined as the areas where homes are intermixed or in the vicinity of wildland vegetation (such as forests and brush).
- Report: Availability and Affordability of Wildfire Coverage
- Cal Fire tree mortality update
- March 9, 2016 Senate Committee on Insurance hearing materials
Source:CPRB