CA Wildfire Disaster Total Loss, Initial Personal Property Payment Mark asked 4 days ago
CA Wildfire Disaster Total Loss, Initial Personal Property Payment

Scenario: CA Wildfire, Federally Declared Disaster. Total Loss, house furnished at the time.

The CA provisions require Insurers to make an initial payment toward Personal Property/Contents of the lesser of 30% of Coverage A/Dwelling or $250,000. We received $250,000. Our policy contains "Limited Replacement Cost" coverage for Pers Prop/Contents.

If subsequently, we file a full itemized claim to recover additional amounts up to the policy limit, will the initial $250,000 payment then be considered by the Insurer to be for "Actual Cash Value?" Meaning, does our inventory value need to meet or exceed the $250,000? And if the individual items ACV amount doesn’t meet or exceed $250,000, will the Insurer seek to recover the difference?

1 Answers
Answer for CA Wildfire Disaster Total Loss, Initial Personal Property Payment Alexis Ricci Staff answered 4 days ago
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Hi Mark, firstly, congrats for having your carrier provide the $250,000 content advance. Yes this $250,000 is considered an advance towards your personal property/contents claim. If you decide to itemize your personal property inventory, provide the ages and conditions for your contents as accurately as possible. The carrier will apply depreciation, which is the amount they hold back until you replace the item(s). The carrier will then apply the $250,000 content advance to your settlement. If the carriers’ depreciated settlement, or ‘Actual Cash Value’ (ACV) does not exceed the $250,000 advance, then no additional payment is made to you at that time.

The carrier may leave your claim opened for additional payments should you decide to replace lost items and they could owe you for depreciation initially held back. Generally the carrier will not ask for a reimbursement of part or all a content advance. However, there are some exceptions where the insurer might seek reimbursement of an advance:

-If the loss is later determined to not be covered under the policy

-If fraud is discovered

-If there was a material misrepresentation of the loss

UP has lots of information on settling your contents claim, which you can find at https://uphelp.org/disaster-recovery-help/2025cawildfires/