Insurance companies won’t be able to abandon customers living near recent Southern California wildfires for a year

For years, Southern Californians have complained about being abandoned by their insurance companies, seemingly for no reason other than the fact that they live in wildfire-prone areas.

But that’s something about 750,000 people who live in areas affected by the recent airport, bridge and rail line fires won’t have to worry about for another year, thanks to a moratorium announced Thursday by California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara.

The move will protect people living in fire-adjacent areas or ZIP codes from having their insurance cancelled or not renewed for one year from the date of the governor’s emergency declarations, whether or not they have suffered a loss.

The moratorium will last 12 months from the date of the declaration of the state of emergency.

“It’s temporary, but it’s important because a lot of people have been left behind,” said Deputy Insurance Commissioner Michael Soller.

“If you’ve just been through something like hundreds of thousands of people have in Southern California, or you’ve had to evacuate your home, the last thing you should be thinking about is, ‘Will I have insurance?’”

Most insurance companies don’t even write policies for residents of mountain communities, forcing many to purchase insurance through the California FAIR plan, which provides basic fire insurance coverage to residents unable to get coverage from traditional insurance companies.

News of the moratorium is being greeted with relief by people like Lake Elsinore resident Kim Cousins, whose home was not only in the path of the airport fire, but also the Holy Fire that burned in 2018.

“I think it’s a hallelujah statement, because for us, we’re out of resources,” said Cousins, who says he’s never filed a claim but is now on his fourth different insurance company.

“Every member of our condo association and this loop has been canceled over the last two decades,” he said. “So it became very difficult to find an insurance company, so we all shared our knowledge of insurance company rates. After this last event, we certainly expected to get letters in the mail.”

That could It will happen again, but not for another year.

For more information on the moratorium, click here.