California can’t legally require insurers to write either residential or commercial property policies. But the state expects insurers to comply with the options unveiled Wednesday in part because they get something they want in return: catastrophe modeling.
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Photo: Firefighters battling a fire in Valley Center, one of the zip codes designated as "high-fire-risk," where officials would encourage more policies to be written, 2010 file photo
June 18, 2024 (Sacramento) -- California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara unveiled Wednesday an effort to force insurers to resume writing policies in high-fire-risk areas — part of an overall plan to address the state’s insurance crisis.
It consists of three different ways insurers can meet minimum requirements for writing policies in areas deemed “high risk” or “very high risk” by the department, which aligns with Cal Fire’s identification of hazard zones. Insurance Department regulators said this hybrid approach takes into account the state’s complex geography as well as the different risk levels that big and small insurers can afford to assume. Lara said this should help homeowners who have lost coverage or been forced to turn to the last-resort FAIR Plan.
Insurance companies would have these three options:
By Levi Sumagaysay, CalMatters
Strong support in public meetings and written testimony for requiring insurance companies to provide discounts to consumers under new Safer from Wildfires framework 
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