California state Sen. Ben Allen, D-Pacific Palisades, introduced legislation Friday that would require property insurers to give policyholders six months’ notice before dropping their coverage and explain the specific reasons for doing so.<\/p>\n
Senate Bill 1301 would also prohibit insurers from nonrenewing a policy solely because a policyholder inquired about a claim, filed a claim that was not paid, or filed a claim that fell within their deductible.<\/p>\n
California policyholders face the fourth highest rate of nonrenewals in the nation, according to a 2024 congressional investigation. The state’s FAIR Plan, which serves as the insurer of last resort, has seen its total exposure increase by 230% since 2022.<\/p>\n
Under the bill, policyholders would have the opportunity to make repairs or adjustments to their property to maintain coverage before a nonrenewal takes effect.<\/p>\n
“Too many Californians are losing this critical support system without a proper explanation or opportunity to retain coverage, unnecessarily risking their livelihoods,” Allen said. “SB 1301 will put an end to that.”<\/p>\n
The bill is sponsored by the Eaton Fire Survivors Network, which represents more than 10,000 survivors of the Palisades and Eaton fires.<\/p>\n
“Right now, people are being dropped without warning or explanation, left scrambling and scared,” said Joy Chen, the organization’s executive director. “Californians deserve a fair chance to stay insured and protect the life we’ve built.”<\/p>\n
Consumer Watchdog is co-sponsoring the measure.<\/p>\n
“Insurance companies have rules about what homes they cover but families losing coverage never get a chance to meet them,” said Carmen Balber, the group’s executive director. “SB 1301 gives consumers information they can act on to keep their policy, and a right to use their insurance without losing it.”<\/p>\n
The bill is expected to be heard in its respective policy committee in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n
Edited by SMDP Staff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"California state Sen. Ben Allen, D-Pacific Palisades, introduced legislation Friday that would require property insurers to give policyholders…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":211633,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-211632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}