Newsom Vetoes Pasadena Senator’s Bills on Home Insurance Claim Estimates, Payment Deadlines

Gov. Gavin Newsom has vetoed two bills authored by state Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez, D-Pasadena, that would have set requirements in state law for how home insurers share loss estimates with policyholders and how quickly they must decide and pay claims, his office announced late Sunday.

Pérez said SB 877 and SB 878 were written after hearing directly from Eaton and Palisades fire survivors.

Both bills passed the Legislature last month with bipartisan votes.

In a single veto message covering both, Newsom said they would codify already existing regulations and guidance adopted by the state Department of Insurance.

He continued: “These bills, however, seek to codify portions of unrelated, existing regulations that are unnecessary at this time.”

The vetoes mean the bills’ requirements, including interest owed to policyholders on late claim payments, do not become law unless the Legislature overrides them.

“These two bills codify existing technical regulations and guidance adopted by the California Department of Insurance to clarify definitions of claim documents and specify certain timeframes for payment of claims to policyholders,” Newsom wrote in the message, dated Sept. 27 and addressed to members of the state Senate.

Newsom wrote that the department had adopted “several landmark regulations” in recent years, including the Sustainable Insurance Strategy, and that once fully implemented, “these new processes will greatly improve access to and availability of insurance throughout California.”

“I’m deeply disappointed to see Governor Newsom veto SB 877 and SB 878, two bills that would have held the insurance industry accountable for illegally delaying fire survivors’ recovery,” Pérez said in a statement Monday. “I’m disappointed that, again, California Fire survivors will be forced to wait for accountability and justice as a result of the Governor’s veto,” she said. Pérez said she would continue working with fire survivors and would author legislation to address the needs of disaster survivors throughout California.

Joy Chen, executive director of Every Fire Survivor’s Network, which describes itself as a survivor-led nonprofit, said the bills “came directly from what happened to us.”

The network co-sponsored both bills with Consumer Watchdog.

“These were basic protections: tell us how our claims are being valued, explain your decisions, and pay us what we are owed on time,” Chen said in a statement.

“Next year, we will be back,” she said, adding that survivors, Consumer Watchdog and their allies in the Legislature would work with California’s new governor to get the protections into law.