My husband and daughter dig up the cycad plant in our front yard. Behind them is the remains of our fire-resilient home after the Palisades Fire.
It was bad enough losing all our possessions and our home of 30 years during the Palisades Fire, but now we’re suffering emotional turmoil and distress because of State Farm Insurance. The fire was easy compared to what this insurance company is now putting us through.
We dutifully paid insurance to State Farm for more than 30 years and our possessions were valued at $810,303.
Now the insurance company has put our claim through a computer program that depreciates the original cost of items including cake pans and spices. They sent us a 40-page summary, saying they don’t owe us $810,303 (unless we can produce receipts), and the 60 percent they originally paid was too much because of depreciation.
Initially, to get money for possessions, the insurance company told us we had to list everything in our house and what it was worth. We did the best we could, trying to remember what we had.
State Farm says it wants receipts. They burned. The receipts burned. Our outdoor barbeque and fireplace accessories are gone. We, like many Pacific Palisades residents, supported local stores, like the fire place store that used to be located on Sunset, near Via de la Paz. It went out of business. We don’t have receipts, and we can’t get them.
Over the years, I collected the Dickens miniature village pieces. Each was a porcelain home/church, skating rink, with detailed windows doors and when a small light was put in it, it was a charming little village that went up in December. We purchased many of the pieces from Collections on Swarthmore. That store went out of business. Receipts burned in the fire and there’s no way to retrieve them.
We had two large Dell computer screens and other electronics that we purchased from General Electrics on Santa Monica Boulevard. That store closed and there’s no way to produce receipts.
Some things that we don’t have receipts for include a grandfather clock that my mother-in-law gave us, because she said she felt the ticking was like the heartbeat of a home. My mother-in-law passed away. No receipt.
The 60-year-old cedar chest that my father, a shop teacher, made for me cannot be replaced because my dad died.
Stored inside was my wedding gown. It was hand-made silk chiffon long dress, designed by an up-and-coming designer in New York. One day I hoped to give it to my daughter. State Farm, said it could be replaced for $1,300, but they need photos, receipts. I don’t have wedding photos.
My grandmother made a light orange double-sized quilt when I graduated from high school in 1971. It had been stored in my chest, along with three baptismal gowns, one for each child. According to State Farm, they don’t count. They are not worth anything.
My first husband and I bought a hand-made wool Persian oriental rug in 1983, which was in the master bedroom. It was in excellent condition and State Farm says I can replace the carpet for $1,400.
The Palisades Fire was classified as complete devastation and was the tenth-deadliest and third-most destructive in California wildfire on record and the most destructive to occur in the history of Los Angeles.
The psychological distress State Farm is causing survivors by requiring a list of possessions, and once they have it, questioning everything. This insurance ordeal is now exceeding the trauma of the fire, because it has been ongoing for 10 months.
If State Farm did not plan to pay the full amount of the policy, why did we have to pay the full amount of the premium?
We’re not alone.
Is there a state/national official that will force State Farm to pay people what they’re owed without causing us further anxiety, stress and hopelessness?
State Farm never intended to pay or planned or promised to pay the full amount of your coverage. That’s not how insurance works. Despite what your maximum policy coverage is, it does not mean they’re going to pay that figure. If they did, people who had a smaller loss would be pocketing the difference and that’s not the purpose of insurance. The purpose of insurance is to compensate you for what you’ve lost. It’s not to pay out the full amount of your coverage maximum.
Point 2:
I hired a Public Adjuster and have been free of the headaches these past 5 months.
I don’t have to talk to State Farm, in fact I’m not allowed to. Once I hired a public adjuster (for smoke damage) he is in between me and my State Farm adjuster, and I never have to talk to that schmuck again. I really like Jimmy Evans and he doubled the amount of money State Farm had paid at that point, and he only took 10%, which was $10,000. And he didn’t take any of the money that I had already been given by State Farm. He took his percentage only off of the money he got me above and beyond what I received already.
It’s been WELL worth it to be free of all the painful details. Jimmy handled everything.
I hope so, we live in a consumer friendly state but State Farm is a roadblock to recovery and is causing so much stress.
i just received invoice from State Farm for homeowners insurance with no home and no returned call after 4 to the agent.
I am so sorry for the immense frustration and anger State Farm is causing you. Similar to you we do not have the majority of receipts; nor do we have videos, photos, etc. We are with Travelers and were paid out 50% initially. I have been slaving away on this (required) inventory for most of this year and still not done. They told me I could “group” things with medium level detail on my inventory–I knew that was BS and that Xactimate app would screw us over if I did that, so I will be literally DROWNING Travelers in details, hyperlinks to current prices of exact items or very close comps for EVERY line item, plus credit card statements, and apparently from what I read on my posting (above this very topic) a narrative about our spending habits , hobbies, and lifestyle. I swear this is a THESIS project. I can’t believe those with the BS CA Fair Plan got full payouts withOUT the need for an inventory (probably because they are not staffed up like the private carriers that are mostly publicly traded cos.). My heart literally sinks every time I read about how the carriers are screwing fire victims and I feel like I am wasting my life away on this stupid inventory–but I’ve sunk so much time & effort into it, I just want to get it done by YE so I can move on with my life in ’26. I hope you are able to negotiate something better with SF. I’m thinking you may have to get an attorney or public adjustor involved–one more expense to a LONG laundry list of outstretched hands charging victims for everything.
You are not alone. Although our condo survived the fire. We had a lot of smoke damage, and also damage during the cleaning process. Our claim was submitted and depreciated almost 50% by USAA.
I was told by a friend, who does commercial insurance, that your policy should state ACTUAL REPLACEMENT COST.
We are now fighting the insurance. Stats are that more than 90% of loss victims don’t challenge the payment and just walk away with what they received.
You and like minded State Farm clients need to file suit.
I believe that the Westside Current quoted Merritt Farren stating that he had been informed that State Farm has been clawing back personal property advances. Do you have any idea what he thinks are the devil in the details issues and what might be a, if there is one, homeowner beneficial outcome?
I think the reason we got the full contents payout from the CA FAIR plan is that our limits were so low. In my case it was $153k. Since that was well below the actual contents of our home, we just got the whole thing without any fuss. It would have been nice to have the limits of the more comprehensive policies but this itemization process sounds brutal. I’m so sorry for all of you that are dealing with this.
I am so sorry you are going through these issues with State Farm. We had to use a special carrier because our “house” was a manufactured home (in Palisades Bowl). The insurance was called “American Modern.” I was pleasantly pleased with how quickly they worked and settled our case.