This was the editors house on Radcliffe that was destroyed by the Palisades Fire.
My neighbor’s home is on the right and this editor’s home is on the left. Notice the garage was still standing on January 7, it burned on January 8.
For more than 30 years, this editor and her husband have paid State Farm Insurance for coverage for the house and possessions.
Possession replacement was listed as $800,000. We paid the amount State Farm requested so that if there was ever a catastrophic disaster, we would be reimbursed that amount for possessions. We never missed a payment.
After the fire, we were told we needed to list the possessions, complete with the amount we paid for them. We did, on an excel spreadsheet. We were asked to provide receipts and pictures. Guess what? Everything burned and State Farm knew that because both California Gavin Nesom and the City declared states of emergency, which led to a major federal disaster declaration.
State Farm paid out about 65 percent. We have not received the remainder. Our sixth adjuster, John Butterfield, has told us numerous times the rest of the claim is under review and most recently he has requested receipts of anything we purchased in the last three years.
Does that mean State Farm wants me to go through my credit card bills to find receipts? Or is this just another stall tactic, so that the insurance company can hold onto money owed us.
We paid a specific amount for a specific service. We are not receiving it. We have complained to the State Insurance Commission who sent a letter to State Farm telling them they’ve received a complaint. We also sent a letter to Senator Ben Allen’s office telling him we were having problems receiving the money owed us.
The Senator’s office sent out a press release on August 29 that his Senate Bill 495, had advanced out of the Assembly Appropriations Committee. This bill is intended to help victims of major natural disasters, such as the Fires
Current law requires insurers to pay at least 30 percent of the contents coverage limit, also known as personal property coverage, up to $250,000 upfront before requiring the policyholder to inventory their contents lost from a state of emergency. SB 495 will increase this threshold to at least 60 percent of the content’s coverage, up to $350,000 upfront. The bill will also extend the deadline for a policyholder to submit proof of loss to at least 100 days in the event of a declared emergency. The bill will now go to the Assembly floor for a vote.
CTN wrote Allen and said this bill is not helpful, that insurance companies should be required to pay the policy limits. If one pays for insurance and your policy states a certain coverage, one should receive that.
CTN wrote to Allen and told him that people need 100% of what they paid for under a major federal disaster declaration.
His communications officer Ben Cheever replied, “We don’t disagree that a policyholder should receive the full amount of their personal property coverage, which is why our bill was originally introduced with language to require them to pay the full 100% without any itemization (with no cap). Unfortunately, as you know the Insurance committee chair forced a rollback on the bill to move us to 60% with the $350,000 cap. Of course we’re disappointed it was scaled back in this way.
“Despite our attempt at a 100% payout policy, however, we do believe that 60% is still a positive improvement on the current system,” Cheever wrote. “You rightfully point out that some insurers have volunteered to pay more than the law requires, but many major insurers, such as State Farm and Allstate, did not agree to the Commissioner’s request to pay 75%. This shows we won’t always be able to strong-arm them or count on goodwill, so might as well improve the law.”
If CTN is interpreting this correctly, it means that Insurance companies do not have to pay what they owe disaster survivors in California and they also tell legislators what laws they’d like.
Sue,
On a different insurance matter, have you heard anything about insurance companies paying for additional environmental testing. I have been told that there is significant levels of Chromium( whatever that is) being found in recent testing in the Palisades.
Best,
SqB
You have that right, Sue.
State Farm has also screwed us–no payments for alternative living expenses for almost 3 months! And they choose to determine what is personal property that is supposed to be covered under the policy. State Farm and their ilk are blatantly hurting tens of thousands of people who paid them in good faith every year for decades.
The Insurance Commissioner and Governor Newsom apparently have the right to force them to pay 100% of all benefits promptly. Guess what–the I.C. and Newsom do nothing. Guess where their campaign funds come from?! Once again the supposed regulators looking out for our interests are found in bed with those they are supposed to regulate. Disgusting!
Four months after my January claim with State Farm for smoke damage, around mid April, I was so frustrated with how little I got from State Farm that I hired a Public Adjuster. He came well recommended, I vetted him a bit, talked to three of his ex clients in Northern California, who praised him. He’s been doing this work for 30 years, with plenty of experience working with State Farm. Now, Here I am 13 weeks out from that, from signing his contract and the PA has gotten only an additional $22k out of State Farm, about a 1/5 of what he promised he’d be able to get for me. I’ve lost another three months. Exactimate bids were worked up by his special buddy in the cleaning company he likes, and submitted, then rejected, revised, submitted again, rejected again by Stare Farm 3 times and with each cycle I lost 3 weeks.
When I asked my Public Adjuster about Sacramento’s State Insurance Commission, he laughed and said. Don’t expect anything from them. The staff there came from the insurance industry. It’s just rotating doors. They work there to learn the ropes and then return to their insurance companies to work as consultants and lobbyists.
They certainly don’t work for you even though they are public servants working in Sacramento on your tax dollars. And they certainly do tell legislators what laws they’d like. Hey, I’m just getting this from my Public Adjuster (who really should be called a private adjuster because he’s working for me). After working in this business 30 years his cynical take-away is: Don’t expect anything out of The California Insurance Commission, they’re in bed with the companies they’re supposed to keep a watch on. It’s a hopeless world.
I’m about to fire them all and clean my own house rather than give massive amounts of money to a remediation company that makes a 600% profit on work that doesn’t need to be performed. And speaking of necessity, how come nobody in this racket pays for tests? Seems the first thing you’d wanna do is to test the inside of your house to see how much work needs to be done. Nobody has suggested that or offered to pay for it. the bids I’ve got on testing range from $3,800 to $6,000 to $8,000 to $10,000.
There’s a lot of vultures out there, making a lot of money off of this disaster.
Let’s abolish the Insurance Commission and let the free market take care of it. They’ve always been reliable to treat consumers as well.
How is the insurance company supposed to know what to pay if the homeowner can’t provide a number. Or is that number just a guess without receipts? Maybe a random number generator would help.
Robert,
When you buy insurance, you pay a certain premium to cover what is in your house. If you have a $1 million in possessions, the premium you pay covers $1 million. If you only have contents work $25,000 you pay a premium to cover that. So your question doesn’t really make sense–basic rule if you buy something you should receive it. If you pay for a car, you’d expect to receive the car.
Sue
Steven,
I’m in contact with the people who have done the environmental testing because I have several questions I’d like answered about the Chronium–and no, I haven’t heard of any insurance company pay for testing–
Sue