Insurance Commissioner Urges Inventory Requirement Waiver

Owners of thousands of homes lost in L.A. County’s wildfires last month may not have to tally their burned art, furniture and keepsakes to be paid back by insurance companies.

State Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara has asked insurers to issue maximum payments for contents of the burned-out homes without requiring policyholders to provide a full inventory of everything they lost, the Los Angeles Times reported.

He asked insurance companies to respond by Feb. 28.

“It is inhumane to require wildfire survivors who have lost everything to list every item of personal property in order to receive the full replacement cost under their policies,” Lara said in a statement. “They need to focus on the larger task of rebuilding their lives.”

The Times didn’t include a response from any insurance firms operating in California.

Some homeowners reported getting maximum payments for personal property lost in the Palisades and Eaton fires. Others said they received nothing, according to the Times.

Most policyholders were asked to provide a detailed inventory of the contents of their home, a requirement that many have struggled to fulfill.

State law requires insurance companies to make initial payments for personal property without completion of an inventory. The initial payment can be up to $250,000, and no less than 30 percent of the policy’s “dwelling limit,” the commissioner’s office said.

After the advance payment, policyholders should receive the full value of their possessions, up to their content policy limits, once they have provided documentation, according to the law.

Insurance firms are supposed to tell their customers about the inventory requirement.

— Dana Bartholomew