By Laurence Darmiento, LOS ANGELES TIMES
The California FAIR Plan, the state’s home insurer of last resort, is seeking an average 35.8% rate hike, its largest in years, following billions of dollars of losses incurred in the January fire storms.
The Los Angeles-based insurance pool, operated and backed by the state’s licensed home insurers, filed this week for the dwelling policy rate hike, which must be reviewed and could be reduced by the state insurance commissioner.
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Carmen Balber, president of Consumer Watchdog, an insurance advocacy group in Los Angeles that regularly intervenes in rate reviews, said that Lara should use his authority to deny any rate hike until the disputes over the smoke-damage claims handing are resolved.
“He has the authority to resolve the eight-year-old FAIR Plan claims handling investigation tomorrow,” she said. “This would be another blow for people with already high rates and low benefits – added on top of their claims not being paid.”