---
title: California Homeowners Would See Faster Claim Payments and Longer Nonrenewal Notice Under Bills on Newsom's Desk
description: Three bills setting claim-payment deadlines, loss-estimate disclosure, and longer nonrenewal notice await Governor Newsom's signature by September 30, 2026.
author: Darie Nani (Editor-in-Chief)
date: 2026-09-08T10:20:30.649Z
updated: 2026-09-08T10:20:30.660Z
canonical: https://www.sovereignmagazine.com/article/california-home-insurance-bills-newsom-desk
image: https://cdn.nanimediahouse.com/california-home-insurance-illustration-243977.webp
categories: Politics
content_type: News
region: United States
publication: Sovereign Magazine
schema_type: Article
---

California lawmakers have sent Governor Gavin Newsom three home-insurance bills that would change how insurers pay claims, calculate payouts, and drop customers, and he has until September 30 to sign or veto them. All three passed both chambers and were enrolled on September 4, a response to the January 2025 Los Angeles wildfires and the claim delays, underpayments, and nonrenewals that followed. If Newsom signs, the rules take effect January 1, 2028.

The measures target the experience fire survivors described after the Eaton and Palisades fires. In the Department of Angels "Community Voices" survey cited by Consumer Watchdog, a co-sponsor of the bills, 70 percent of Los Angeles fire survivors reported insurance delays and underpayments, and a separate United Policyholders survey of 453 households found about 80 percent reported serious claim problems. A May to June 2025 FM3 Research poll of 828 likely California voters found 80 to 90 percent support stronger policyholder protections, including longer nonrenewal notice.

> "Arbitrary claims delays and unjustified non-renewals strip consumers of the financial security that comes with insurance."
> — Carmen Balber, Executive Director, Consumer Watchdog

## Insurers Would Get a Deadline to Pay Claims

SB 878, from Senator Sasha Renée Pérez of Pasadena, writes claim-handling deadlines into state law. An insurer would have to [acknowledge a claim within 15 days, accept or deny it within 40 days, and pay any accepted amount within 30 days](https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260SB878). Late payment of an undisputed amount would accrue interest, and a corporate officer would have to certify the company's compliance. It replaces an open-ended timeline, a common source of claim delay, with a fixed one.

"If we pay for insurance, insurers must keep their promises, tell us what it takes to stay insured, and pay what they owe on time," said Joy Chen, an Eaton Fire survivor and executive director of the Every Fire Survivor's Network, a co-sponsor.

## Homeowners Could See the Insurer's Own Loss Math

SB 877, also from Pérez, gives policyholders a way to check the number an insurer puts on their loss. Within 15 calendar days of a request, an insurer would have to disclose all valuation, measurement, and loss-adjustment calculations, including the original estimate and every revision. A homeowner who suspects an underpayment could see how the figure was built and challenge it, rather than accept a lump sum with no explanation.

## A Longer Warning Before a Policy Is Dropped

SB 1301, from Senator Ben Allen, lengthens the notice a homeowner gets before losing coverage. It raises the required nonrenewal notice from 75 to 90 days. When a home has fixable, or remedial, conditions, the insurer would have to give 120 days' notice plus a 90-day window to correct them. The insurer would also have to explain, in plain language, why it is dropping the policy, including any non-aerial imagery it relied on. Magda Molina, a Hollywood homeowner, testified that she spent $8,000 on repairs only to be told the work was not enough to keep her coverage, the kind of abrupt nonrenewal SB 1301 is written to slow.

## The FAIR Plan Now Holds More Than 668,000 Policies

California's standard home-insurance market has been contracting since before the fires. The FAIR Plan, the insurer of last resort, held more than 668,000 home policies in late 2025, about 5 percent of the state's single-family homes and up from roughly 1.5 percent in December 2020. Another 300,000 homeowners have moved to unregulated surplus-lines coverage, up from about 50,000 in 2023. Combined, [roughly a million Californians have been pushed off the standard market](https://calmatters.org/economy/2026/01/2026-fire-insurance-bills/), where premiums are up about 84 percent since 2020. State Farm stopped writing new home policies in the state in May 2023, and Allstate paused new business in November 2022.

## Insurers Warn the Rules Could Push Carriers Out Faster

This year's California home insurance reform runs on two tracks: these three consumer bills and the Sustainable Insurance Strategy, a separate state effort that lets carriers use catastrophe models and reinsurance costs in pricing in exchange for binding commitments to write more policies in high-risk areas. Farmers, Travelers, Mercury, CSAA, and Zurich have begun filing under it.

The Personal Insurance Federation of California, an industry group, says the bills "would worsen the current affordability and availability crisis" as the state begins implementing that strategy. The American Property Casualty Insurance Association opposes the measures on principle, arguing that added mandates compromise an insurer's own judgment about its solvency. The objection turns on cost, flexibility, and the risk of a faster exit, not on whether the 15, 40, and 30-day deadlines can be met.

Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara said he has heard the reforms described as a potential "market-killer," while noting that these three bills take a narrower, procedural approach focused on transparency, timing, and notice rather than forcing insurers to write new policies. That is the question in front of Newsom before September 30: whether tighter rules make coverage more available, or push already-retreating carriers to leave California faster and move more homeowners onto the FAIR Plan.

## FAQ

**Q: Are the new protections retroactive, or do they only cover future claims?**
If Newsom signs, the three bills take effect January 1, 2028 and set claim-handling and nonrenewal rules going forward. Homeowners in a dispute before that date fall under existing law, which is part of why survivors of the January 2025 fires pushed for the changes now.

**Q: What is the Sustainable Insurance Strategy?**
It is a separate effort by the California Department of Insurance to draw carriers back to the state. It lets insurers factor catastrophe models and reinsurance costs into their rates, which they could not fully do before, in exchange for committing to write more policies in wildfire-prone areas. It works on pricing and availability, while these three bills focus on how insurers handle claims and nonrenewals.

**Q: Could the bills make home insurance harder to get or more expensive?**
Insurers warn they could. Industry groups say the added mandates raise compliance costs and could push carriers to limit business in California or leave, which would send more homeowners to the FAIR Plan. Supporters counter that the measures mainly enforce promises insurers already make and add transparency. The bills do not set premium rates.