Fed up with denials and delays, LA fire survivors ask state insurance commissioner to beef up enforcement

Los Angeles fire survivors are demanding the state intervene more to help them recoup what they're owed from insurance companies, citing months of frustration.

Lawmakers and people who lost their homes in the January fires gathered Monday morning to ask state Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara to increase transparency and beef up enforcement.

They described lengthy battles with insurance companies that were making recovery and rebuilding even more challenging.

" Every delayed payment, every denial of what is owed in someone's policy is not just paperwork to us. It's a family forced to wait in limbo," said Victoria Knapp, chair of the Altadena Town Council. "It's the silent, overwhelming weight carried by people who have already lost everything."

Survivors are pointing their ire directly at Lara, who some accuse of failing to hold insurance giants accountable in a report put out by the Eaton Fire Survivors Network.

"This is not an issue of weak laws. California already has some of the nation’s strongest consumer protections. The problem is that Commissioner Lara has failed to enforce them," that report states.

What are they asking for?

The group of fire survivors issued five requests, asking Lara's office to complete an ongoing investigation into State Farm within 60 days and prioritize complaints that insurers are cutting off people's short-term living coverage prematurely.

They want the state to amend the California FAIR Plan — the last resort insurer for homeowners in the state — to protect people from denials for smoke damage. The group is also asking for greater transparency, including public reports from the Department of Insurance on complaints.

" So we can see which companies are getting the complaints, who is complaining, and for why," said Assemblymember John Harabedian, who represents Altadena. "We wanna hold regulators accountable as well as insurers."

Lara responded in a statement, citing his office's ongoing investigation into State Farm's fire claims, legal action against the FAIR Plan over smoke claims, and his move to form a task force focused on smoke damage claims.

"Our goal aligns with the survivors' network: we want individuals to recover on their own terms," he said. "The severity of our insurance crisis and the suffering of countless Californians require us to get this right. We must empower our Department's experts to do their jobs to protect consumers, and that is my intention."

Smoke damage claims

Smoke damage claims have been a big challenge for people whose homes survived the fires but need remediation.

The FAIR Plan is not run by the state — it's operated by the insurance industry as the last option for homeowners who can't get insurance elsewhere. State law requires that all insurers operating in California participate in the plan.

Since 2017, the FAIR Plan's coverage policy requires “direct physical loss” that is "evidenced by permanent physical changes."

Fire survivors say the "permanent physical changes" language has led the FAIR Plan to illegally deny smoke damage claims. The Department of Insurance agreed, last month filing legal action against the plan in July, saying it had violated state law by denying legitimate claims. The department reported that it had received at least 220 smoke damage or related complaints against the FAIR Plan since the January fires.

That move came after a Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled in June that the insurer's treatment of smoke claims was illegal. The FAIR Plan told LAist in response that it did not expect to appeal.

"Since last year, we have been working collaboratively with the California Department of Insurance to update and clarify our policy language around smoke damage," a spokesperson for the association wrote in an emailed statement.

Fire survivors say it's not enough. They are asking Lara to use his power to order the FAIR Plan to remove the "physical damage" requirement entirely.

"Since the illegal policy change in 2017, thousands of fire survivors across California have suffered needlessly," the report from the Eaton Fire Survivors Network reads.

Lara's office responded citing its recent legal action and a letter it sent to the insurance plan demanding that it amend its policy.

Requests for more transparency

Fire survivors are also asking for more transparency from insurers and the state agency tasked with monitoring them. The group wants the insurance commissioner to require insurers to provide policyholders with copies of original and changed loss estimates.

Victoria Knapp, the Altadena Town Council president, said Monday that she was now on her fifth insurance claims adjuster.

" Survivors cannot rebuild when the very safety net that we've paid into refuses to function," she said.

They want receipts from the state, too.

They're asking the Department of Insurance to publish monthly public reports on complaints against insurers and to create a portal for the people filing those complaints to easily track where they stand.

These asks highlight the months of challenge people have faced negotiating their insurance since January. In a recent survey from the organization Department of Angels, just one in four people who lost their homes or suffered severe damage in the Eaton and Palisades fires reported having their claims fully approved.