A member from the California Insurance Commissioner office speaks at Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors meeting
SANTA CRUZ COUNTY, Calif. (KION-TV)- A representative from the California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara 's office spoke at the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday afternoon amid multiple insurance companies pulling new insurance policies in California.
READ MORE: State Farm not allowing some Californians to renew home insurance beginning in July
Multiple people who live in wildfire prone areas in the Santa Cruz mountains spoke about the importance of keeping State Farm and Allstate in the state.
According to a spokesperson with the California Department of Insurance, the state has experienced experience nine of the ten worst devastating wildfires in state history.
Natural disasters and global inflations are creating stress on the insurance market in every state. This leads to an increasing cost of rebuilding and labor shortages, which causes insurance companies to become harder to find, as well as costly.
“I am also a fire survivor and we lost our home in the CZU fire, we rebuilt the most fireproof home you can imagine, yet we were still canceled by insurance." a community member at the meeting said.
The California Department of Insurance created a three step system to help protect the homes, surroundings, and the community.
This would provide consumers with discounts and transparency about their risk rate.
According to the Department of Insurance, since 2022 seven of the top twelve insurance groups have paused or restricted new business despite the rate costs.
“There have been hundreds of non-renewals of homeowner insurance and they’re terrified right now because they see no other options," Santa Cruz County Supervisor Zach Friend said. "Getting on the State Fairp lan is very expensive and doesn't provide them the coverage they want right now and that tends to be their only option.
The Department is looking into catastrophic modeling that protects you from natural disasters, but has not adopted it yet.
More businesses, home owners, and communities are making investments in wildfire safety.
The Department of Home insurance wants to return fair plan owners back to the traditional insurance market because it is the first resort for many Californians, instead of the last.
