There's new hope for California homeowners facing rising insurance costs: Lawmakers are considering a new bill to boost protections.
State Sen. Josh Becker, a Democrat from Menlo Park, has introduced a bill that would force insurance companies to consider the billions of dollars the state has spent on wildfire mitigation and all the work homeowners have done to protect their homes from wildfires such as creating defensible space around their property.
Becker told the Mercury News that insurance companies are not taking those facts into consideration when calculating insurance coverage and its cost to homeowners.
Senate Bill 1060 would require that. The bill, however, would not require the insurers to pass on any sort of discount -- just that they consider the work that has been done to better protect property.
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The American Property Casualty Insurance Association, which represents insurance companies, said California already requires companies to model these mitigation efforts into their coverage, and the state will soon require new regulations surrounding this kind of modeling.
Mark Sektnan, APCIA vice president for State Government Relations, released a statement Wednesday.
"Insurers support proactive wildfire mitigation efforts like home and community hardening based to protect public safety and property," Sektnan said. "Science-based research by the Institute for Business and Home Safety shows us what steps to take in the Wildfire Prepared Home standard that will meaningfully reduce risk to properties. However, we're in touch with the author because this bill has several complicating factors to consider.
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"The California Department of Insurance already requires insurers that use risk models to take into consideration specific mitigations and provide consumers discounts," Sektnan's statement continues. "The Department is also in the process of developing regulations to authorize new types of catastrophe models that factor in the risk of wildfires and mitigation efforts taken by individuals and communities. We believe the Department should be allowed time to adopt these regulations."
Many homeowners across the state have seen their insurance bills go up in recent years to cover the costs of wildfires, and some have been dropped by their insurer.
