Insurance relief measures for California fire victims yanked or gutted in Legislature
State Sen.
McGuire's bill (SB 897) would have made insurance companies pay out at least 80 percent of the maximum limit under a homeowner's personal property coverage without requiring policyholders to itemize their losses.
When insurance companies insisted on amendments that "watered down the bill close to useless, we rejected them," McGuire said.
"This fight is far from over and there is no way in hell that we are going to back down," McGuire said. Other communities around
The McGuire bill was a response to local fire survivors who argued that compiling a list of lost items proved too burdensome and traumatic as they attempted to rebuild in the aftermath of the nation's costliest wildfire.
State Insurance Commissioner
McGuire's decision follows the
Dodd's bill, which now heads to the Assembly, would increase insurance coverage for rental living from two years to three -- a crucial provision because most builders believe that not all the
It also requires companies to renew policies for at least two years. Current law allows for only one year, after which the carrier could cancel the policy.
As originally proposed, the Dodd legislation would have applied retroactively to
But to secure passage, Dodd had to remove the retroactive provisions to all but one item -- the extended time before carriers can cancel policies.
An earlier version of the Dodd bill also would have allowed policyholders to combine their homeowner policies for different coverage areas -- such as their personal property, living expenses and outside buildings -- to pay for their primary dwelling. The measure was in response to the thousands of fire victims who have found themselves underinsured, some by hundreds of thousands of dollars.
But Dodd was forced to narrow that language so that the combination of insurance payments would apply to actual losses accrued, not the maximum amount listed under each line item of a policy.
As the Dodd bill heads to the Assembly, proponents fear that the last remaining retroactive provision will be removed because of industry lobbying.
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