California issues 1-year moratorium on insurance cancellations in fire areas
LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Thousands of Southern Californians suffering losses from the Palisades and Eaton fires are starting the daunting process of filing insurance claims.
California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara has banned insurance companies from canceling or not renewing polices for homeowners affected by the Palisades and Eaton fires for one year, his office announced. He also wants to backdate that to Oct. 9.
"This means that if you've received a non-renewal from your homeowners insurance between Oct. 9 and Jan. 7, essentially 90 days, your insurance company should do the right thing and retain you as a valued policyholder," Lara said.
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These are the numbers for insurance policy cancellations:
- In Pacific Palisades, about 10.03% of homeowners and fire policies were not renewed from 2020-2022.
- In Altadena, 8.15% of policies were not renewed from 2020-2022.
For those with insurance who fear their homes were destroyed, Lara says homeowners should start gathering documents now to file any claims with their companies.
"Start documenting every conversation," he said. "I often tell survivors - even set up a new, different email where you're getting all your emails around your insurance recovery policies so that you could keep that and track that and document that. That's critical."
Also, be very careful if approached by anyone saying they can help. Unfortunately, Lara says this is the time when fraudsters come in to try to take advantage of people when they're most vulnerable.
"Do not sign anything under stress," Lara said.
"You have out-of-state adjusters that make false promises that don't know California law and how we protect consumers here," he added.
City News Service contributed to this report.
