For four months, the frustrations and the unworthiness continued for the victims of the palisades and the fires of Eaton, in particular for those who still fight against their insurance companies.
On Saturday, I watched more than 200 people join a zoom meeting during which a parade of owners exhibited horror stories involving insurance complaints Fair Plan Farm and California which were delayed, disputed or licensed.
“The fire was only the start of their trauma,” said Joy Chen, an Altadena resident, who heads the Network Eaton Fire Survivors Network. In a compiled complaint newspaper, an owner said: “I literally have panic attacks every day. I have lost 20 pounds since January 7. My hair falls and I’m afraid. “
Fire victims claim that disputes have involved, among other things, the inspection and sanitation of contaminants in homes and properties, delayed coverage of temporary accommodation expenses and what many consider lowball payments for losses.
And now comes another blow.
Tuesday, the state insurance commissioner Ricardo Lara presented to State Farm General an increase in emergency rates of 17%. This occurred just a few hours after a judge in administrative law approved the increase in rates, which kicked off to Lara.
The same Lara who, in this zoom on Saturday, heard the owners argue him not to grant an increase in rate until her department investigated if the state of the farm respects its legal obligations in the processing of allegations of the insured.
Lara said at the time that a so-called “market driving” exam was “not outside the table” and “we are not necessarily opposed to this”.
It was a lukewarm response, and I am generous. The insurance lobby is a force in California, and you want the state insurance commissioner to act like a watchdog, not a lapdog. Especially in this alarming era of high fire danger, which leads to new risks for insurers and owners.
Lara critics point out that in the past, he accepted campaign donations from the insurance sector after saying that he would not. And like my colleague Laurence Darmiento wroteLara’s attempts to make insurance more affordable and available involved “door meetings behind closed doors” with insurers “because he chopped his reforms”.
Now Lara has added “insult to injuries” for customers who will see two -digit rate increases “while State Farm managed their existing claims”, in the words of the executive director of Watchdog of Consumer Carmen Balber.
Chen was just as frank:
“We are deeply disappointed by Commissioner Lara’s decision to approve an increase in rates for the Farm of State – without even investigating the hundreds of first -hand reports that we have submitted illegal delays, refusal and low -ball offers.”
Lara said in a statement on Tuesday that he expects that State Farm providing “the highest level of service” and “keeps her promises”. He said that the company should now “justify its financial situation and detail its recovery plan during a full rate hearing before a neutral judge and experts from my department”.
And Lara said that the company was to obtain a cash infusion of $ 400 million in her parent company to solve her financial problems. Perhaps the CEO of State Farm can kick a few dollars, after dropping $ 24 million in salary and bonuses in 2022.
The judge of administrative law had declared that the increase in rates was fair and necessary, and in the interest of consumers, “operating effectively as a rescue mission”. And State Farm called it “a first critical step” to allow the company “to continue serving our Californian customers”.
Continue to serve? Many customers say they are not served, because State Farm has not been a good neighbor. A guy by the name of Jake appears everywhere in the company’s television advertisements, but he was not spotted in Altadena or in the Palisades.
Unhappy customers of California Fair Plan team with those of State Farm in Zoom on Saturday, and after getting an ear, Lara asked Chen to make her put the complaints she had recorded.
She sent 381 on Monday.
One of a resident of palisades whose house has been destroyed, said that despite 50 years of work with State Farm, “we have had 8 experts so far and a lack of constant responsiveness.”
“We have a total loss and they still hang out,” said another.
“We paid our bonuses by believing that when the crisis came, we would be protected,” said another complaint. “Instead, we encountered a delay, a deviation and a denial – pushing families on the verge of financial ruin, the instability of housing and emotional collapse.”
During the meeting, the resident of Sierra Madre Wendy Davis, a retired lawyer whose house was spared from the fire of Eaton but suffered damage caused by smoke, read the exact description of her agricultural state policy:
Wendy Davis and her husband Mike Noll at their home in Sierra Madre. Davis said that State Farm had finally discussed her complaints, but only after months of persistence and a series of experts.
(Steve Lopez / Los Angeles Times)
“This font is one of the widest forms available today and offers you a current value for your insurance dollars.”
But that was not the case, said Davis, asking Lara: “How is it not fraud?”
“I know how to read a contract,” she said. His contract indicates: “This will cover the tests of your home for contaminants, if these contaminants are caused by fire and smoke.”
And yet, she was denied the coverage of the hygienist whom she hired, said Davis, and she was not immediately offset for expenses when she lived in temporary accommodation at the Alhambra.
“They delayed from the start,” said Davis when I met her and her husband, Mike Noll, in their house in Sierra Madre, who always has contaminants. “We did not have a significant adjustment for a month, and it was my fifth.”
It is a current complaint of fire survivors – the adjustment mixture. Davis said that State Farm had finally approached her complaints, but only after months of perseverance and better cooperation of his seventh expert.
“We can fight with them and defend ourselves,” said Davis, but she is worried about “elderly single moms” and whoever does not have her history. “It’s a full -time job, fighting with them, and people cannot defend themselves.”
After all they have endured, it shouldn’t be so difficult.
Steve.lopez@latimes.com
California Daily Newspapers
