Los Angeles Times: Insurer of last resort kept growing. Then L.A. fire victims paid the price
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 23, 2025
Contact: contact@insurancefairnessproject.com
Los Angeles Times: Insurer of last resort kept growing. Then L.A. fire victims paid the price
Today, the Los Angeles Times spotlighted California’s growing home insurance crisis, and specifically how California’s insurer of last resort, the FAIR Plan, is failing homeowners, including survivors of the Los Angeles fires. FAIR covers thousands of L.A. residents who were forced to enroll after being suddenly dropped or denied coverage from their previous insurers, which is itself the subject of a new lawsuit alleging illegal collusion by private insurance companies.
Excerpts:
That Hvolka had to buy a policy from the state’s troubled home insurer of last resort after losing her insurance was hardly unusual, according to a Times analysis of FAIR Plan and California Department of Insurance data.
The Times found that in the Palisades and Eaton fire zones, the FAIR Plan’s rolls shot up last year a combined 47%. From 2020 to 2024, the number of homes in both areas on the plan nearly doubled from 14,272 to 28,440.
That exceeded, according to the Times analysis, a 40% growth in policies issued statewide last year by the plan, an association of insurers licensed to write home insurance policies in California. [...]
For many victims of the L.A. wildfires, it was the only available insurance: Four ZIP Codes in the fire-affected zones enrolled more than a third of their households in the state plan. But the backup insurance has not lived up to its promise, drawing numerous complaints among policyholders about delays in payments and other issues. [...]
Earlier this month, 10 Palisades and Eaton fire victims sued the FAIR Plan, State Farm and nine other large insurers, alleging that they failed to properly investigate and remediate claims for smoke damage, even though the homes were uninhabitable. [...]
“It’s been a very emotional experience for us — an emotional roller coaster. It takes days or weeks to get any type of response from the FAIR Plan. And the most difficult thing is we are not even in our home,” she said.
Read the full story here.
“The home insurance crisis is impacting every corner of the country, and Californians are feeling the squeeze. Insurers of last resort like FAIR were never meant to cover massive gaps left by private insurers dropping and canceling policies en masse,” said Sophia Wilson, spokesperson for the Insurance Fairness Project. “We need state lawmakers and regulators to step in and deliver real solutions to make sure that insurance is there for homeowners and renters, especially following a disaster. It’s not right that the cost of increasing extreme weather disasters is falling on the shoulders of hardworking families who have paid into the insurance system and expect it to be there when they need it.”
National Polling
The Insurance Fairness Project’s recent poll found that insurance is top of mind for American voters keenly aware of their vulnerability:
78% of voters are at least somewhat concerned about rising property insurance prices, with 40% saying they are “very concerned”;
66% are concerned about increasing extreme weather events;
74% have either been personally impacted by extreme weather or know someone else who has;
A majority of voters think the federal government and state governments are doing too little to protect consumers and hold insurance companies accountable.
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The Insurance Fairness Project is an information hub dedicated to offering insights into the home insurance crisis, exploring its drivers and highlighting solutions alongside issue experts and community advocates.
