Insurance Commissioner to Hold Forum on Homeowner Policies and Wildfire

To address homeowner insurance during wildfire season and business interruption insurance, Santa Barbara legislators will join forces with Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara in a video forum set for Wednesday, July 8, at 5:30 p.m.

Lara instituted a number of pauses or reductions in policies, ranging from more time for claimants from the November 2018 wildfires to auto policy reductions. For the first, Lara stated COVID restrictions that hold up reconstruction are to be considered good cause for extensions of time. For the second, he stated premium reductions were in order because less driving and fewer accidents took place than projected from March to May because of the pandemic. About $1 billion was returned to policy holders and another $180 million was saved in a reduction of future policy increases, he stated.

On July 8, Lara, Assemblymember Monique Limón, State Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson, and Congressmember Salud Carbajal will answer questions, which can be emailed beforehand to assemblymember.limon@assembly.ca.gov by 5 p.m. on July 1. The session goes live at caasm.zoom.us/j/93252354773. Call (669) 900-6833 and use access code 93252354733#. Limón’s office will also stream the meeting live at her Facebook page and will provide a recording at her website.

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