California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara announced on Thursday that he is exercising authority under Senate Bill 824 to prohibit both admitted and non-admitted insurers in California from canceling and nonrenewing homeowners policies in wildfire-impacted areas of the state.  Commissioner Lara authored SB 824 in 2018 while he was a member of the California State Senate.

Under SB 824, the Commissioner may prohibit insurers from canceling or nonrenewing homeowners policies for a full calendar year in areas that have had a state of emergency declared due to a high severity wildfire.  Due to the catastrophic nature of 2020’s wildfire season, large portions of California have been severely impacted by wildfires and can be offered protection from policy nonrenewals under SB 824.

The Commissioner’s bulletin, which contains all of the zip codes protected under the moratorium, can be viewed on the Department of Insurance website here.