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Fire survivors urge state action after market conduct exam finds industry violations
Summary
An executive director of a survivors network and other commenters testified about widespread insurance delays and denials after recent fires, urged the Department of Insurance to reopen closed complaints and enforce findings, and called for insurance incentives tied to home hardening.
Survivors and advocacy groups told senators at a joint hearing that insurance failures are slowing recovery for thousands of families and that state regulators must act.
Joy Chen, executive director of the Every Fire Survivors Network and an Altadena survivor, described evacuations, home loss and community-organized recovery platforms. Chen said her group collected nearly 500 firsthand survivor accounts and urged the legislature and the California Department of Insurance (CDI) to publish transparent complaint statistics and to reopen complaints that were closed without resolution. She cited a recent market-conduct examination of State Farm and said the findings documented hundreds of violations across a sample of claims.
"When 70 percent of survivors cannot access the insurance benefits they're owed after a disaster, recovery will never move forward in California," Chen said, and she urged that survivor groups be consulted in program design and outreach so resources reach families in need.
Lawmakers and witnesses discussed policy options to tie insurance availability to verified home hardening, including legislation that would require insurers to offer admitted-market coverage to homes that meet objective mitigation standards. Consumer advocates and local officials at public comment also urged annual audits of utility wildfire mitigation spending so ratepayer collections are matched by accountable investments.
The hearing did not produce a statutory fix but repeatedly returned to the link between mitigation, insurance availability and recovery timelines. Senators requested further briefings and follow-up from the Department of Insurance and programs that connect mitigation outcomes to market signals for insurers.
