Saturday, May 9, 2026

Mounting Number of Insurance-Accountability Bills Face State Senate Votes in Coming Weeks

Three California Senate bills cosponsored by an Altadena-founded fire survivor network face a Senate Appropriations Committee vote within the next two weeks, sixteen months after the Eaton Fire destroyed thousands of homes in Altadena.

The bills — SB 877, SB 878 and SB 1301 — passed the Senate Insurance Committee on April 22 and are next scheduled for an Appropriations vote that Joy Chen, executive director of the Every Fire Survivor’s Network, said in an interview is expected May 11 or May 14. A fourth bill in the package, SB 1076, failed the same day.

Chen said in the interview that 70% of L.A. fire survivors are facing insurance delays and denials impeding their recovery, citing a figure from the Department of Angels’ “Community Voices: LA Fire Recovery Report,” a survey of fire-impacted residents published in 2025.

“Recovery really comes down to the money,” Chen said.

SB 877, authored by Senator Sasha Renée Pérez (D-Pasadena), would require insurers to disclose all original loss estimates and every subsequent revision, including what changed and why, according to Consumer Watchdog, which cosponsored the legislation alongside EFSN. Chen said in the interview that SB 877 also requires insurers to put acceptance and denial decisions in writing — a requirement she said does not currently exist and which, when paired with frequently rotating adjusters, can leave policyholders without resolution for a year.

SB 878, also authored by Pérez, strengthens existing California law on claim delays by requiring insurers to respond to claims in writing and on time, with enforceable penalties, according to Consumer Watchdog. Chen said the bill redirects accruing interest to survivors when insurers delay.

SB 1301, authored by Senator Ben Allen (D-Pacific Palisades), would require insurers to provide a specific reason for non-renewal and offer a six-month opportunity to address the cited issue, according to Consumer Watchdog. Asked whether SB 1301 specifies sanctions for insurers that falsify non-renewal reasons, Chen said she did not remember and would have to look it up.

The fourth bill, SB 1076, the Insurance Coverage for Fire-Safe Homes Act, was authored by Pérez and would have required insurers to offer and renew coverage for any home that meets state wildfire-safety standards adopted by the insurance commissioner, beginning Jan. 1, 2028, according to a Los Angeles Times report on April 23. Senator Susan Rubio withheld her vote, joining Senator Laura Richardson (D-San Pedro) in abstaining, according to a Consumer Watchdog news release dated April 23. Both abstentions had the same procedural effect as no votes under committee rules, the release said.

“We were very disappointed in her vote there,” Chen said of Rubio. “We know that she has very, very close ties with the industry, and we would’ve hoped that she would’ve sided with 94% of Californians want guaranteed insurance coverage for fire safe homes, just like we have good drivers.” Chen said in the interview that Rubio’s district borders the Eaton Fire burn zone and includes East Pasadena.

Richardson said in committee, according to the Los Angeles Times: “Last I heard, in the United States, we don’t require any company to do anything. That’s the difference between capitalism and communism, frankly.”

Denni Ritter, vice president of the American Property Casualty Insurance Association, told the committee her trade group opposed SB 1076 even after amendments, the Los Angeles Times reported. Ritter said the proposed amendments retained “the same core flaw — substituting underwriting judgment and solvency safeguards with a statutory mandate to accept risk.”

Pérez said in a statement following the vote: “I’m disappointed this bill died in committee. Fire survivors deserved better.”

Chen said it is possible the SB 1076 idea will find its way into other 2026 legislation.

Chen attributed to a Los Angeles Times analysis a finding that 38% of more than 22,500 homes destroyed in five major California fires between 2017 and 2020 had been rebuilt by 2025, and said the number-one factor in whether a family rebuilt was whether their insurance paid out and on time. The five fires analyzed were Tubbs (2017), Carr (2018), Camp (2018), Woolsey (2018) and North Complex (2020), the Times’s methodology note states. Chen said Liam Dillon, who led that Times analysis and is now a Politico reporter, has reported the L.A. recovery is moving more slowly than the Camp Fire and Tubbs Fire recoveries.

A coalition of 40 organizations, including EFSN and Consumer Watchdog, wrote to the Senate Insurance Committee on April 14 urging passage of all four bills, according to a Consumer Watchdog news release distributed via PRNewswire.

On Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara, Chen said EFSN is awaiting California Department of Insurance action on the thousands of complaints the network has filed.

“Well, it’s taken a really long time for this marketed conduct exam, it took 11 months,” Chen said. “And he still has not moved forward on our complaints.”

As of March 3, insurers had paid out more than $23.7 billion to residential, commercial and auto policyholders impacted by the fires, and the California Department of Insurance had recovered more than $280 million for survivors through direct intervention since January 2025, according to a Department press release. On May 5, the Department announced legal action against State Farm General Insurance Company, citing 398 violations identified in a Market Conduct Examination of 220 sample claims, with penalties potentially reaching $5,000 per violation, or $10,000 for willful violations.

The Eaton Fire began January 7. EFSN, founded in Altadena after the fires and previously called the Eaton Fire Survivors Network, has filed thousands of complaints with the California Department of Insurance and brought, by Chen’s account via a Consumer Watchdog release, more than 1,300 firsthand accounts of insurer misconduct to Pérez. EFSN’s network includes more than 250 nonprofits and government agencies.

Survivors can reach EFSN at efsurvivors.net, where signing up with an email address subscribes a user to a free weekly newsletter and triggers an invitation to the network’s Discord, Chen said. Information on EFSN’s three remaining bills is at fixinsurance.org.

EFSN has rescheduled its annual Pickleball Festival fundraiser from May 30 to August, Chen said.

“And so we’ve been walking the worst of times, but I’ve seen the best of people,” Chen said.