AB 1847 Mortgage Relief for Fire Survivors Clears State Senate Committee

A bill that would let Eaton and Palisades fire survivors pause their mortgage payments for up to three years cleared the California Senate Banking and Financial Institutions Committee on Wednesday, advancing legislation written by the Pasadena assemblymember whose district absorbed the worst of the Eaton Fire.

AB 1847, authored by Assemblymember John Harabedian, a Pasadena Democrat, would extend mortgage forbearance for fire survivors from the current 12 months to as much as 36 months and let borrowers defer the paused payments to the end of their loans, according to the bill text. The measure now heads to the Senate Judiciary Committee. For Altadena — where the Eaton Fire destroyed 9,418 structures, according to Cal Fire’s final report — the bill speaks to households still carrying mortgages on homes they cannot live in.

The bill builds on AB 238, the Mortgage Forbearance Act that Harabedian also authored and that became law in 2025. That measure gave survivors 12 months of relief and barred lenders from demanding lump-sum repayment, late fees, foreclosures or negative credit reports. AB 1847 would triple the relief window and requires servicers to offer borrowers the option to repay forborne amounts at the end of the loan term. Relief is available only if the mortgage contract allows it, and the deadline to apply would extend to Jan. 7, 2029.

The bill carries bipartisan support and is officially sponsored by Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, according to a news release from Harabedian’s office.

“The priority needs to be helping families impacted by the Eaton and Palisades fires get back on their feet,” Harabedian said in the release. “AB 1847 is designed to better reflect the harsh realities of wildfire recovery in California and the slow process survivors endure on this journey by giving survivors a temporary break on the mortgage while they rebuild.”

Bass, who has pressed banks and lawmakers for extended relief, said survivors still face obstacles. “So many wildfire survivors continue to face ongoing mortgage payments and insurance denials that are making it impossible to rebuild,” she said in the release. “We need the big banks and the insurance companies to step up and do what’s right so wildfire survivors can rebuild.”

Barger, in the same release, said the extension “is the right thing to do.” Families “deserve every relief measure we can provide,” she said, adding that the bill “will help families move forward with hope.”

Not every survivor is certain the protections will reach them. Len Kendall, who lost his home in Pacific Palisades, told the Los Angeles Times he welcomed the bill but questioned enforcement. “There’s no one really holding them accountable at the moment,” he said.

The banking industry is reviewing the measure. Yvette Ernst, a spokesperson for the California Bankers Association, told the Times that “the banking industry proactively provided relief to wildfire victims, and this effort pre-dated legislative action.”

If signed into law, the amendments would take effect immediately. The Assembly passed AB 1847 on May 26 by a vote of 49-18 before it passed to the Senate, where Wednesday’s committee vote leaves the Judiciary Committee as its next test.