California to require insurance discounts for property owners who reduce wildfire risk
California to require insurance discounts for property owners who reduce wildfire risk By
News Eagle Staff
Monday, August 21, 2014
California has decided to require insurance companies who offer fire insurance to provide property owners with discounts for taking steps to reduce wildfire risk, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
The state’s Insurance Commissioner, Marybel Batjer, wrote the state Senate Insurance Committee in July with support from Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, a Democrat from Sacramento, and asked the panel to require the discounts. The panel passed the proposal on a 10-3 vote.
The proposal doesn’t apply to commercial insurers, who will have to decide the merits and costs of the discounts, but it does require insurers to give discounts to policyholders who reduce the amount of their insurance risk by enrolling in programs aimed at reducing wildfire risk.
The state has had a $150 million firefighting program in place since 1998 but has not sought out discounts. Insurers who want to offer discounts have to meet requirements including that the discount be available to all insurance policyholders, not just homeowners, and that the discounts apply whether the homeowner moves out of the risk area or whether they take out fire insurance on another property.
“The California wildfires last year were devastating,” Batjer says, “and I’ve heard a lot of stories like that. The insurance industry should be doing everything they can to help those homeowners, but they don’t have to. That’s why legislation like this is needed.”
The bill now goes to the Assembly floor for a vote on Sept. 11.
About the Author
Bob is a native of the San Francisco Bay Area who has worked in radio, digital publishing and journalism since 1999. A journalist since 1997, Bob has spent the previous 10 years as the Executive Editor of an ISO newsletter and the last four years as the Director of Government Relations and Public Liaison
