Existing law gives a person the right of protection from bodily harm and the right to possess and use property. If a person suffers bodily harm or a loss of their property because of the unlawful act or omission of another, existing law authorizes them to recover compensation from the person at fault, which is known as damages. Existing law authorizes the Attorney General to bring various civil actions due to damage or loss. This bill would authorize the Attorney General to bring a civil action against specified fossil fuel companies for climate-attributable damage to recover costs and losses suffered by the California FAIR Plan Association, funds borrowed from the California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank, or costs and losses incurred by insurance policyholders. The bill would make those companies strictly liable without regard to fault for any relief granted. The bill would authorize the court and jury to use market share and alternate liability principles to determine proportionate liability of those companies for the climate-attributable damage, as described. This bill would make it an unlawful business practice for the company or affiliated entity to recover from California consumers, through retail or wholesale prices, charges, fees, surcharges, or any other adjustment to the price of gasoline or other motor fuels, for any costs and expenses incurred in connection with such a civil action, as defined. This bill would create the Attorney General Climate Disaster Fund into which the monetary relief recovered by the Attorney General would be deposited, and would set forth specified uses for the account upon appropriation by the Legislature. The bill would make related findings and declarations.
Existing law creates the Department of Insurance, headed by the Insurance Commissioner, and generally regulates classes of insurance, including residential property insurance. Existing department regulations prohibit an insurer from using a rating plan that does not take into account and reflect specified wildfire risk mitigation, including property-level building hardening measures. On and after January 1, 2028, this bill would prohibit an admitted insurer that offers or sells residential property insurance in this state from refusing to offer, sell, or renew a policy of residential property insurance for an applicant or insured whose property meets minimum home hardening and wildfire mitigation standards, except as provided. The bill would authorize an admitted insurer to apply to the commissioner for a temporary waiver of that prohibition in a particular geographic area of the state, as specified. On and after January 1, 2028, the bill would also require any residential property insurance offered or sold to, at a minimum, provide coverage equivalent in scope to the residential property coverage the admitted insurer most commonly offers or sells in this state. The bill would suspend or revoke an insurer's certificate of authority to offer or sell residential property insurance and automobile insurance in this state for five years if the admitted insurer habitually and as a matter of ordinary practice violates these provisions or if the admitted insurer offers residential property insurance in this state on and after January 1, 2026, but elects to cease offering that insurance rather than comply with these provisions.
Existing law creates the Department of Insurance, headed by the Insurance Commissioner, and prescribes the department's powers and duties. Existing law establishes the California FAIR Plan Association, a joint reinsurance association in which all insurers licensed to write basic property insurance participate to administer a program for the equitable apportionment of basic property insurance for persons who are unable to obtain that coverage through normal channels. This bill would require the department to annually prepare a report that includes the change in number of FAIR Plan policies by ZIP Code for the prior calendar year. The bill would require the report to be submitted to the Legislature and publicly posted on the department's internet website on or before July 1, 2027, and on or before each July 1 thereafter.
Existing law generally regulates classes of insurance, including residential property insurance. Existing law prohibits an insurer from canceling or refusing to renew a policy of residential property insurance for a property located in a ZIP Code within or adjacent to a fire perimeter for one year after the declaration of a state of emergency, if the cancellation or nonrenewal is based solely on the fact that the insured structure is located in an area in which a wildfire has occurred. This bill would require the Department of Insurance, on or before January 1, 2027, and on or before each January 1 thereafter, to report specified information to the Legislature on the effect the above-described one-year prohibition against cancellation or nonrenewal has had in ZIP Codes subject to the prohibition.
Existing law generally regulates classes of insurance, including residential property insurance. Existing law prescribes the standard form for fire insurance policies covering property. This bill would, under a homeowners' insurance policy, authorize an insurer to differentiate the risk of an internal fire from the risk of an external fire for the purposes of determining coverage. The bill would define terms for purposes of this provision.
