California’s Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara and his new set of regulations are to blame for higher insurance rates, Consumer Watchdog says. Gordon Tokumatsu reports for the NBC4 News at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, Sep. 17, 2024.
A Chatsworth community of nearly 300 middle-class homeowners claimed Tuesday that their insurance company dropped their policies four months ago after increasing their insurance premium some 500%.
“The premium went from $349,000 to a whopping $1.7 million," Bruce Breslau said while representing his homeowners’ association (HOA), explaining the insurance company notified the HOA that it would no longer be able to provide coverage for those in wildfire zones, including Chatsworth.
“My premium doubled,” said Gigi Bannister, a retired firefighter in Crestline, sharing the similar story about her canceled insurance policy.
Bannister said she filed a $40,000 claim after a snow-related collapse at her house. Her insurance company not only denied it but it also canceled her policy.
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“Insurance companies should be forced to honor claims. If they don’t, what is insurance for?” Bannister said.
The stories of Breslau and Bannister have become more common as climate change impacts every Californian's life with fires, floods and slides.
California’s Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara and his new set of regulations he implemented earlier this year are to blame for higher insurance rates, according to Jamie Court of Consumer Watchdog, a non-profit advocacy organization.
"Unfortunately, Insurance Commissioner Lara’s been worse than 'asleep at the switch,' Court said. "He’s been in the back rooms, making deals with the insurance companies."
In response, Lara said Consumer Watchdog’s claims are a “lie” as he came out of an intense, three-hour hearing where State Assembly members asked him pointed questions about his plan.
“We’re ruffling some feathers on some entrenched interest on both sides,” Lara said about insurers as well as the insured.
Lara said his priorities is doing everything possible to keep insurers from fleeing the state of California while bringing down the risks for insurance companies such as catastrophic weather events to eventually bring down the cost for homeowners.
“We can’t have insurers retreating or leaving the state, because then we’re never gonna get to affordability,” Lara said.
