Fire Victims May Get 3 Years Of Insurance Rent
Written by 991KBU on May 30, 2019
And this note for people who lost their houses to fire …and have only two years of insurance money for replacement rental housing.
State insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara is seeking help from the insurance industry for victims of the North Bay Area wildfires of a year and a half ago … who are still struggling to rebuild their homes.
Lara has requested that insurers continue paying living expenses for policyholders without inhabitable homes for an additional third year.
He also asked insurers to cover the full replacement cost for new homes … instead of subtracting the land value.
This is all according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Following the 2017 fires near Napa and Santa Rosa … state lawmakers in 2018 extended living expense coverage from 24 to 36 months, but the new laws do not apply retroactively to survivors of the 2017 fires that destroyed 5,300 homes and caused more than $12 billion in losses across five counties.
Now many of those survivors face the loss of insurance benefits within months. Homeowner policies typically cover additional living expenses such as food and housing costs, furniture rental, moving and storage and transportation expenses while a home is uninhabitable.
“With labor shortages and other outside factors delaying the rebuilding process, time is running out for many who lost their homes in the 2017 fires,” Lara said in a statement. “I urge insurers to show good faith with their policyholders by extending living expense payments to those who have endured so many delays beyond their control.”
Lara also issued a second request asking insurers not to subtract the value of the land beneath destroyed homes when calculating their replacement costs, should fire survivors choose to buy a replacement home instead of rebuilding.
“We’ve been pushing hard to ensure policyholders get the full value when they replace their home by buying,” said Amy Bach, executive director of United Policyholders, a nonprofit advocacy group that represents insurance purchasers.
Nicole Mahrt-Ganley, a spokeswoman for the American Property Casualty Insurance Association, which represents about 60% of home insurance companies, did not comment on the specifics of Lara’s proposal but said insurers understand the fires were a large-scale disaster and that there have been delays caused by material and labor shortages.
“The law allows for flexibility,” she said. “While insurers cannot increase the amount of coverage under a policy, they can, as the commissioner requested, work with policyholders to provide more time for rebuilding. Policyholders should always have a conversation with their insurer to find solutions.”
- Substantial reporting here in the San Francisco Chronicle
