Bill related to fire insurance introduced as LA wildfires rage – NBC 7 San Diego

Ken Smith took a walk in his Scripps Ranch neighborhood on Monday morning. He made sure to get his steps in early after seeing the potential for strong winds in the afternoon.

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“I have a weather report that says, you know, by 3 o’clock, that’s going to be 17 mile-an-hour winds,” Smith said. “If that happens, we could have an event.”

An event like the 2003 Cedar Fire that scorched the very streets on which he walks 22 years later. The memory of evacuation and returning home to see much of his neighborhood leveled, however, are fresh. Plus, the potential of another inferno is omnipresent on dry, windy days like Monday.

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“For us here in San Diego, we’re worried about what’s going to happen when the winds come up, if a fire sparks, what’s going to happen here. Is it going to be ‘03 again?” said Smith, who recalls the devastation from the Cedar Fire. “We walked right up the street. We saw that one down and that one down and made a turn. And there’s a couple of houses, and then eight houses were down.”

While people like Smith are on high alert in Southern California, lawmakers in Sacramento are working to keep fire insurance rates as low as possible. For San Diego Assemblymember David Alvarez, that comes in the form of a bill called the “FAIR Plan Stabilization Act,” which he introduced the week the wildfires raged in Los Angeles.

“Now, with the cost of rebuilding, the cost of paying these claims, the magnitude of them is just tremendous,” Alvarez said. “Our eyes are now more open.”

Insurance brokers say homeowners could see an increase of almost 40% in their insurance policy. NBC 7 and Telemundo 20 Responds’ Tania Luviano-Hurwitz reports.

Insurance companies that operate in California have to participate in the FAIR Plan. It is a pool of money the insurers all pay into, which provides fire insurance for properties that cannot otherwise obtain it. However, if losses from a disaster cost more than the plan budgets, insurance companies pay the difference, and that can trickle down to consumers as a surcharge.

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Alvarez’s new tool allows insurance companies to borrow money from investors, so they can pay out full claims without going bankrupt, or relying on increased rates.

“Consumers win because we get our claims actually addressed so that people can rebuild. And insurance companies don’t lose because they’re able to pay this over the course of time,” said Alvarez, who tried to pass a similar bill last year. “I was certainly disappointed that we weren’t able to get it to the finish line last year, and it was because we were concerned that something like this could happen.”

Alvarez hopes the bill, which has to pass the legislature and secure the governor’s signature but would then go into immediate effect, would prevent insurance companies from fleeing California.

They are not the only ones at risk of leaving. Smith loves San Diego but expects his rates to keep rising.

“Maybe we’ll get priced out. Maybe we’ll have to move. Maybe I’ve moved closer to my three kids and nine grandkids,” Smith said.