How to deal with an insurer after your home is burned down
How to deal with an insurer after your home is burned down

The vast majority of California homeowners have insurance that covers fire damage. But that doesn’t mean you can breathe easy. Property insurance lawyers say it’s not uncommon for insurers to do everything possible to minimize payouts, especially after catastrophic blazes such as the ones now…
State senator and businessman run for state insurance commissioner post in wildfire aftermath
State senator and businessman run for state insurance commissioner post in wildfire aftermath

The race for California insurance commissioner this year has taken on greater importance for North Bay residents, after many have found themselves with homes underinsured as a result of last year’s wildfires. And reforms to overhaul homeowner insurance regulations to provide more ways to help…
Will Home Insurance Pay To Fully Rebuild? Probably Not
Will Home Insurance Pay To Fully Rebuild? Probably Not

It’s been 12 months since Madonna Day’s home burned down in the North Bay wildfires. “I miss it so much,” she said. “My whole life’s treasures and memories are gone to ash.” She and her daughter Marie-Louise Clark are eager to rebuild the farmhouse they…
Joint hearing addresses insurance concerns from North Bay fire victims
Joint hearing addresses insurance concerns from North Bay fire victims

NAPA, Calif.KTVU) – A joint hearing of the state Assembly and Senate Insurance Committees took place at Napa Valley College on Tuesday. The hearing comes after many key proposed reforms, were defeated in the Legislature. The hearing explored if homeowner’s insurance coverage actually meets the…
One year after California’s most devastating wildfire, Santa Rosa is a patchwork of loss and renewal
One year after California’s most devastating wildfire, Santa Rosa is a patchwork of loss and renewal

It was just one year ago when Tricia Woods lost her home in a single, impossible instant. The Tubbs fire, the most destructive wildfire in California history, had ripped through Sonoma County and incinerated more than 5,500 homes, including the middle school teacher’s own four-bedroom…
Many Black Forest residents were thrilled to find their property intact after the 2013 wildfire. For some, the ordeal was just beginning.
Many Black Forest residents were thrilled to find their property intact after the 2013 wildfire. For some, the ordeal was just beginning.

Properties classified as “partial loss” sometimes become the object of intense disagreement between homeowners and insurers BLACK FOREST — At first, Nancy Trosper could hardly believe her good fortune. Although she initially heard that her house had burned to the ground in the disastrous 2013…
How Napa County is overcoming sense of uncertainty after the October 2017 wildfires
How Napa County is overcoming sense of uncertainty after the October 2017 wildfires

So many people living in the North Bay counties of Napa, Sonoma and Mendocino had their lives changed one year ago. Our friends and neighbors in Lake County had endured an unprecedented firestorm two years earlier in their area; the October 2017 fires were a…
Under-insured homeowners left without enough to rebuild after North Bay Fires
Under-insured homeowners left without enough to rebuild after North Bay Fires

On the anniversary of the North Bay Fires that burned thousands of homes to the ground in Santa Rosa, we are finding many homeowners will not have the cash to rebuild. Why? They were under-insured, they say, through no fault of their own. A month…
Survivors of Northern California wildfires are facing ‘no win’ decisions on rebuilding
Survivors of Northern California wildfires are facing ‘no win’ decisions on rebuilding

At a recent event for people who lost their homes in last year’s fires, a local yoga business owner led the room through a mediation exercise. She led off by sharing that her childhood home had been destroyed in the fires, and then dimmed the…
A year later, majority of North Bay fire victims still await reimbursements from home insurers to rebuild
A year later, majority of North Bay fire victims still await reimbursements from home insurers to rebuild

Consider the unfortunate plight of Laney Wall and Scott Rooks. They were married Sunday but remain unable to start building a new house to replace their Santa Rosa home that burned down in last October’s wildfire. The two are Air Force veterans who served in…
Hurricane Florence Aftermath: The Best Financial Options for Repairing Your Home
Hurricane Florence Aftermath: The Best Financial Options for Repairing Your Home

More than two weeks after Hurricane Florence’s devastating crawl across the Carolinas and Virginia, many homeowners are assessing the damage and beginning to make repairs. According to real estate data provider CoreLogic, the storm affected 624,000 homes, the vast majority unprotected by flood insurance. Standard…
Get your papers in order
Get your papers in order

Part of getting ready for a disaster means getting your financial house in order. Thousands of people who lost homes in the 2017 California wildfires discovered too late that their insurance coverage had not kept up with the rising cost of lumber, labor and other…
Trim Your Home Insurance Premium
Trim Your Home Insurance Premium

Whether you stay with your current insurer or switch, you can lower your rate without sacrificing coverage. Car insurance companies are falling all over themselves to grab your attention with clever TV ads, giving the impression that lowering your premium is as easy as picking…
North Bay fire victims should be aware of deadlines to sue their homeowner insurers
North Bay fire victims should be aware of deadlines to sue their homeowner insurers

As the first anniversary of the North Bay wildfires approaches, people who lost their homes in the natural disasters should take steps to ensure they do not lose the ability to sue their homeowner insurers if they think they have been treated unfairly, according to…
Sonoma County Medical Association holds fires-recovery workshop
Sonoma County Medical Association holds fires-recovery workshop

Like anyone who has been affected by October 2017’s wildfires, physicians need ongoing support and assistance in rebuilding their lives. And they continue to receive it. On Wednesday the Sonoma County Medical Association held the third in its ongoing series of fire-recovery programs and workshops…
What happens when you buy a house in a disaster zone – and no one told you?
What happens when you buy a house in a disaster zone – and no one told you?

In many states, laws don’t require sellers to disclose that a property is in a flood or wildfire area, leaving homeowners with unexpected damage and losses The house on Weber Hill Road is almost a year gone, but it still haunts Emilie Hayes. Thirteen years…
Bummer about your medical emergency, but your claim is denied because you didn’t call in advance
Bummer about your medical emergency, but your claim is denied because you didn’t call in advance

Of the many dubious reasons insurers use for denying claims, one of the most bizarre is telling a patient they neglected to obtain prior approval for treatment in the midst of a medical emergency. Because, of course, the first thing most people think of in…
Private firefighters and five-star hotels: how the rich sit out wildfires
Private firefighters and five-star hotels: how the rich sit out wildfires

With record-breaking wildfires carving up the American west this summer, firefighters have become the rarest of civil servants: the kind almost universally lauded as heroes. Reinforcements dropped into California’s firefight from as far away as Australia and American Samoa to bolster strained state and federal…