Your home has suffered Mother Nature’s Double Whammy – it was burned or damaged by smoke during a recent wildfire, and now your property has suffered further structural damage from earth movement.Wildfires can destroy vegetation and make soil less permeable, which makes it easier for even short bursts of heavy rain to cause mudslides. If […]
In the past few years, the California Department of Insurance (“DOI”) has received thousands of complaints related to underinsurance. And it is starting to act.It has found misrepresentations and failure to pay claims against several insurers, as summarized below in their ongoing series of investigations, all titled “Following the Wildfires of 2015 and 2017.” While […]
Underinsurance and issues with insurance companies are worse than ever in 2022. The fire season has already begun, with over 3,000 fires burning over 21,000 acres by mid-June. The 2020 and 2021 fire seasons were the worst on record, and 2022 looks to meet or exceed those expectations.In an attempt to protect homeowners, the California […]
California wildfires and their destruction have grabbed headlines for a decade. But wildfires are not limited to California. As Pacific Northwest residents know all too well, fires have been devastating the north as well. Thousands of Oregon homes are lost to wildfires each year.The 2022 fire season is expected to be the worst on record […]
On May 11, 2022, a wildfire destroyed at least 20 homes in the Laguna Niguel neighborhood of Orange County. Fire season is beginning earlier each year. Meanwhile, the costs to rebuild continue to skyrocket. These costs are rarely reflected in a homeowner’s insurance coverage, which means that every year, hundreds of people in California who […]
How to Manage Your Homeowners Insurance in a Wildfire AreaThe first two months of 2022 were the driest in California’s history. Another very active fire season is expected, and the fire “season” is lengthening each year. The areas that burn are increasing, and parts of the state that do not typically see fires are becoming […]
Farmers Insurance Called to Task on Homeowner Underinsurance ClaimsMost homeowner insurance companies in California have been avoiding responsibility for often massive underinsurance in their customer’s policies, in the wake of wildfires, by saying that it is up to the insured to select policy limits. Underinsurance has been an issue long enough that now some customers […]
What Courts Say About Underinsurance of Homeowner’s Coverage in CaliforniaInsurance companies take the position that they have no responsibility for the amount of coverage their insureds have in the event of a disaster. That way, they can offer very low premiums to compete in the insurance market. And, if there is a wildfire or other […]
Wildfires have decimated swaths of California, leaving entire cities destroyed in their wake. Many of the homeowners affected by these fires have found too late that they were dramatically underinsured and cannot rebuild or buy a similar home. In essence, their insurance is useless to them.The Department of Insurance is aware of the problem and […]
Your news feed is constantly cluttered with natural disasters – wildfires, hurricanes, and floods seem to have become part of our daily conversations. According to a recent study by the Institute for Economics and Peace, natural disasters on a global scale have increased ten times since the 1960s.We often absorb this information with sorrow for […]
