My comments to Department of insurance letter are below concerning escalating home insurance rates

STATE OF CALIFORNIA Ricardo Lara, Insurance Commissioner

DEPARTMENT OF INSURANCE
CONSUMER SERVICES AND MARKET CONDUCT BRANCH
CONSUMER COMMUNICATIONS BUREAU
300 SOUTH SPRING STREET
LOS ANGELES, CA 90013
www.insurance.ca.gov

August 15, 2023

Arthur Bierman
4052 Farralon Way
Oxnard, CA 93035

Our File Number: 8532132
Regarding: Homeowners Insurance
Dear Mr. Bierman:

Thank you for your recent correspondence of 8/14/2023.
We are aware that affordable residential insurance is getting harder to find in areas of the state that insurers identify as having a higher than average risk of wildfire. We can certainly understand your concerns with the present condition of the residential insurance market. Be assured that the Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara and California Department of Insurance staff have been working with the Governor’s Administration, the State Legislature, and other stakeholders to come up with viable long-term solutions to the availability and affordability problem.

In 2022, Commissioner Lara proposed new regulations intended to improve wildfire safety and drive down the cost of insurance for homeowners and businesses. The regulations are now state law. It is the first in the nation requiring insurance companies to provide discounts to consumers under the Safer from Wildfires framework created by the California Department of Insurance in partnership with state emergency preparedness agencies. Insurance companies are required to submit new rate filings incorporating wildfire safety standards created by the Department, and to establish a process for releasing wildfire risk determinations to residents and businesses by April 12, 2023. The filings will then be subject to review and approval by the Department. Transparency is an important benefit of this regulation, by requiring insurance companies to provide consumers with their property’s “wildfire risk score” and creating a right to appeal that score. You may wish to read the related Press Release on our public website.

While the Department does not have the legal authority to tell insurers what level of risk they must accept, we can certainly review the specific situation involving your homeowners’ policy by completing a Request for Assistance form accessible from our webpage.

If you are shopping the market, we invite you to visit and explore the Department’s Website which provides several tips and tools that may assist you in your search for residential insurance including the Home Insurance Finder Tool. For commercial property insurance, such as an HOA policy, visit our Find an Agent site to locate an agent or broker who may be able to shop the market.
Thank you again for taking the time to write us. In the future, if we can assist you with an insurance problem or provide you with additional information, please contact our Consumer Hotline at 1-800-927-4357 or visit us online.

Sincerely,

Jon Young
Associate Insurance Compliance Officer
Phone: 213-346-6901
Email: [email protected]

Please refer to our file number when responding