California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara Wednesday requested insurance companies to extend by one-year additional living expense (ALE) coverage for victims who lost homes in the 2017 North Bay fires.
The ALE insurance covers expenses for food and housing, furniture rental, hotel stays, relocation and storage.
New state laws extend living expense coverage from 24 to 36 months, but the laws do not apply to survivors of the 2017 wildfires, many of whom will lose their coverage by October because of delays in rebuilding their home.
The fires destroyed 5,334 homes in Sonoma County, and the vast majority of them have not been rebuilt.
“With labor shortages and other outside factors delaying rebuilding, time is running out for many who lost their homes in the 2017 fires,” Lara said in a news release. “I urge insurers to show good faith with their policy holders by extending living expense payments to those who have endured so many delays beyond their control,” Lara said.
Lara said Santa Rosa and Sonoma County have processed 2,814 permits for homes, 55 percent of the number destroyed, but only 399 homes have been rebuilt.
Lara also requested insurers to not deduct the land value when fire survivors purchase a new home in a different location. Many insurers deduct land costs, thereby reducing the amount homeowners can receive from their insurance company, Lara said.
The deduction of the land from the cost of purchasing a home at a new location creates another complication for some fire survivors, Lara said.
California law allows those who lost their home to use their insurance to rebuild in the original location, a new location or relocate to a replacement home.
The Department of Insurance said it has received complaints from policyholders who choose to relocate about insurers that deducted the estimated land value of the new home from the overall home replacement cost payment. That leaves policyholders with less than the full amount of the benefits they would receive if they rebuilt the home, the Department of Insurance said.
“Allowing policy holders to purchase an already existing home without having insurers deduct the value of the land will greatly help wildfire survivors throughout California rebuild their homes and lives,” Lara said.
The Department of Insurance said it has received more than 600 formal complaints as a result of the North Bay fires, and it has recovered millions of dollars for survivors through its investigation and intervention
Lara met Tuesday night with block captains in the burn area and local officials in Santa Rosa.