Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
So we all remember the wildfires from California. That was
the stuff out of nightmares. Man, any of that footage.
Alex Stone is joining us ABC News.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
And we would have loved the rain. You guys are
having it.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
All now, you really oh my gosh, yeah, especially during
that time. I mean, but that was Yeah, Like I said,
that's the stuff out of nightmares. When you see footage
of all of that stuff so scary, and you covered it,
you had a front row seat and and all of that.
But the illegally mishandling of this, and I mean it's
just this is really sad, Alex. It's like these man,
(00:33):
these it's just a black eye on the insurance companies
to just kind of in general, but really really sad
to hear this.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Well. Yeah, so you know, like a good neighbors. State
Farm is there, right, they always say in they're commercials,
but California and it's Department of Insurance. They are claiming
that that State Farm has not been a good neighbor,
that they have not been fully there for customers. And
State Farm is massive, I mean it's everywhere, and that
they ensure about one out of every five homes in California.
They are a major player nationwide, but they've they've been
(01:03):
handling about a third of all the fire claims out here.
And California is alleging that State Farm has been deliberately
slow and done inadequate claims investigations, that they have failed
to pay in a reasonable amount of time, that they
have underpaid claims and made low settlement offers, and that
they have made the process so confusing that people can't
figure out how to get paid, and that they are
(01:25):
stuck in this just cyclone of people telling him, well
file this file that, No, that doesn't cover that, and
no we will you know.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
So.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Jesse Albert is a home rebuilding. He still doesn't have
anything close to a home. His neighbors homes are going up,
but he's got State Farm and he's got an empty
slab right now. Because he's still trying to get money
from State Farm. He says, this has been a major problem.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
They've taken forever. I've had seven adjusters.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Seven adjusters on his claim, every one of them contradicting,
he says, the other one and saying that things will
be covered and won't be covered. Another big thing here
has been the smoke damage that homes didn't burn and
but had so much smoke and soot in the homes
that you know that there are the health concerns and whatnot.
And the state claims that State Farm has improperly denied
claims related to testing and other things. So people are fighting.
(02:12):
It is a widespread thing that across many insurance companies,
but State Farm among them, where people say that they're
not getting the money that they should get and Albert Sam.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
It's just delayed, delay, delay, And you know, this is
a company that they have one job, right they literally
have one job, which is you know, to protect us.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Yeah, and later the other thing here is he says
there's a deadline coming up where they're telling them for
you know, the coverage you have for the contents inside
your home, that they're saying that the deadline is coming
to get paid for that stuff or it goes away.
And he's saying, well, I can't go and buy furniture
and plates and TVs and stuff because I don't even
have a home to put them in yet. So it
feels like it's all you know, playing against him on
(02:54):
the timeline of that where that that money could go away.
But State Farm is denying the allegation, and they say
they strongly disagree that they have, and they reject any
suggestion that they've engaged in a practice of mishandling or
underpaying wildfire claims. This is going to go to administrative judge.
It could cost state farm millions of dollars. They could
potentially take away their license of at least in this state,
(03:17):
writing new policies and renewing. But it's a fight that
whether it be here or in other areas of the
country where there have been big disasters, where people say, look,
they have spent their whole lives paying into insurance, and
when they need it, it becomes this fight with them
to try to get their money.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
I can't imagine what the premiums have to be. Knowing that,
I would think that that would be built into the possibility,
like for wildfires for instance. I mean, gosh, you have
all kinds of natural disasters, earthquakes, all that stuff, so
and you unfortunately have a front row seat for that
as well. Now I don't know if it's as bad
(03:54):
where you live, because it's maybe less likely to occur
something like that. But I can't imagine the premiums are.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
Cheap for this.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Oh, they're nuts.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
And then on top of that, so, yeah, it's going
to cost them millions of dollars. But look, that's why
you pay those crazy premiums.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
H Yeah, well and yeah. In twenty twenty four, State
Farm decided not to renew They cut seventy two thousand
policies in the state because of the wildfire risk. It
is nearly impossible now I get homeowners associate or homeowner's
insurance in California, and so people are going to what's
called the fare Plan, which is the plan of last
resort that the state has made all the insurance companies
(04:30):
pay into for those who can't get insurance because of
the fire risk. And people pay through the roof for
the fare plan and get almost no coverage. It is
very basic coverage, but it's all that they have left.
And those of us who have insurance companies that are
still willing to cover us. It is insane that the
amount that we're paying an earthquake that's another insurance you
(04:51):
have to pay through the through another agency that doesn't
even it's like flood insurance. It's the California Earthquake Authority.
You pay through the roof for that through another agency.
The regular homeowners doesn't cover, it doesn't cover earthquakes. But yeah,
it's uh, it's tough to get insurance. That's why one
of the things that they could do is take away
their ability to operate in California for a year. Nobody
(05:12):
wants that to lose another insurance company and more available
policies that would that would hurt more people in the
state than it would help. But more than likely it'll
be fine in the end.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Is there anything cheap in California after you pay those
crazy premiums.
Speaker 4 (05:29):
The gasoline, the property taxes. I'm still here.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Yeah, you guys, Well, Chuck had to wait a minute.
His mouth was hanging open.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
And this is one of the few times you were
going to hear me say this. We need a law.
We need a law. There needs to be protecting I'm
talking to federal law. Insurance companies need to have a
deadline and when and how they respond to catastrophic laws
like this canes or fires or whatever.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Yeah, and the state has been telling them that they
cannot to all the insurance companies bring their premiums to
where they want them to be. That they they say
to cover all of this. Now that they've got to
make it so expensive that it would be through the roof.
And they've been trying to operate and the state, to
their credit, has said no. But that has been led
to this where the insurance companies either want to bail
(06:16):
out or cut coverage or just you know, say that
they're not going to do it all together because the
state won't let them raise rates to where they want to.
But already the rates are insane, but they're saying, with
the cost of rebuilding that they've got to make them
even higher.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
Yeah, man, craziness. We'll keep watching this and following it.
I'll be interested to see how this turns out. State
Farm is an enormous company, so we'll see how this
plays out.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
I like chio Patrick Mahomes and ask him to fix
it commercials right, Yeah, he does sports.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
He does sports. Everyone, Alex, thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Man. See
So we all remember the wildfires from California. That was
the stuff out of nightmares. Man, any of that footage.
Alex Stone is joining us ABC News.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
And we would have loved the rain. You guys are
having it.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
All now, you really oh my gosh, yeah, especially during
that time. I mean, but that was Yeah, Like I said,
that's the stuff out of nightmares. When you see footage
of all of that stuff so scary, and you covered it,
you had a front row seat and and all of that.
But the illegally mishandling of this, and I mean it's
just this is really sad, Alex. It's like these man,
(00:33):
these it's just a black eye on the insurance companies
to just kind of in general, but really really sad
to hear this.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Well. Yeah, so you know, like a good neighbors. State
Farm is there, right, they always say in they're commercials,
but California and it's Department of Insurance. They are claiming
that that State Farm has not been a good neighbor,
that they have not been fully there for customers. And
State Farm is massive, I mean it's everywhere, and that
they ensure about one out of every five homes in California.
They are a major player nationwide, but they've they've been
(01:03):
handling about a third of all the fire claims out here.
And California is alleging that State Farm has been deliberately
slow and done inadequate claims investigations, that they have failed
to pay in a reasonable amount of time, that they
have underpaid claims and made low settlement offers, and that
they have made the process so confusing that people can't
figure out how to get paid, and that they are
(01:25):
stuck in this just cyclone of people telling him, well
file this file that, No, that doesn't cover that, and
no we will you know.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
So.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
Jesse Albert is a home rebuilding. He still doesn't have
anything close to a home. His neighbors homes are going up,
but he's got State Farm and he's got an empty
slab right now. Because he's still trying to get money
from State Farm. He says, this has been a major problem.
Speaker 3 (01:45):
They've taken forever. I've had seven adjusters.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Seven adjusters on his claim, every one of them contradicting,
he says, the other one and saying that things will
be covered and won't be covered. Another big thing here
has been the smoke damage that homes didn't burn and
but had so much smoke and soot in the homes
that you know that there are the health concerns and whatnot.
And the state claims that State Farm has improperly denied
claims related to testing and other things. So people are fighting.
(02:12):
It is a widespread thing that across many insurance companies,
but State Farm among them, where people say that they're
not getting the money that they should get and Albert Sam.
Speaker 3 (02:21):
It's just delayed, delay, delay, And you know, this is
a company that they have one job, right they literally
have one job, which is you know, to protect us.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Yeah, and later the other thing here is he says
there's a deadline coming up where they're telling them for
you know, the coverage you have for the contents inside
your home, that they're saying that the deadline is coming
to get paid for that stuff or it goes away.
And he's saying, well, I can't go and buy furniture
and plates and TVs and stuff because I don't even
have a home to put them in yet. So it
feels like it's all you know, playing against him on
(02:54):
the timeline of that where that that money could go away.
But State Farm is denying the allegation, and they say
they strongly disagree that they have, and they reject any
suggestion that they've engaged in a practice of mishandling or
underpaying wildfire claims. This is going to go to administrative judge.
It could cost state farm millions of dollars. They could
potentially take away their license of at least in this state,
(03:17):
writing new policies and renewing. But it's a fight that
whether it be here or in other areas of the
country where there have been big disasters, where people say, look,
they have spent their whole lives paying into insurance, and
when they need it, it becomes this fight with them
to try to get their money.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
I can't imagine what the premiums have to be. Knowing that,
I would think that that would be built into the possibility,
like for wildfires for instance. I mean, gosh, you have
all kinds of natural disasters, earthquakes, all that stuff, so
and you unfortunately have a front row seat for that
as well. Now I don't know if it's as bad
(03:54):
where you live, because it's maybe less likely to occur
something like that. But I can't imagine the premiums are.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
Cheap for this.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Oh, they're nuts.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
And then on top of that, so, yeah, it's going
to cost them millions of dollars. But look, that's why
you pay those crazy premiums.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
H Yeah, well and yeah. In twenty twenty four, State
Farm decided not to renew They cut seventy two thousand
policies in the state because of the wildfire risk. It
is nearly impossible now I get homeowners associate or homeowner's
insurance in California, and so people are going to what's
called the fare Plan, which is the plan of last
resort that the state has made all the insurance companies
(04:30):
pay into for those who can't get insurance because of
the fire risk. And people pay through the roof for
the fare plan and get almost no coverage. It is
very basic coverage, but it's all that they have left.
And those of us who have insurance companies that are
still willing to cover us. It is insane that the
amount that we're paying an earthquake that's another insurance you
(04:51):
have to pay through the through another agency that doesn't
even it's like flood insurance. It's the California Earthquake Authority.
You pay through the roof for that through another agency.
The regular homeowners doesn't cover, it doesn't cover earthquakes. But yeah,
it's uh, it's tough to get insurance. That's why one
of the things that they could do is take away
their ability to operate in California for a year. Nobody
(05:12):
wants that to lose another insurance company and more available
policies that would that would hurt more people in the
state than it would help. But more than likely it'll
be fine in the end.
Speaker 1 (05:22):
Is there anything cheap in California after you pay those
crazy premiums.
Speaker 4 (05:29):
The gasoline, the property taxes. I'm still here.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
Yeah, you guys, Well, Chuck had to wait a minute.
His mouth was hanging open.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
And this is one of the few times you were
going to hear me say this. We need a law.
We need a law. There needs to be protecting I'm
talking to federal law. Insurance companies need to have a
deadline and when and how they respond to catastrophic laws
like this canes or fires or whatever.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Yeah, and the state has been telling them that they
cannot to all the insurance companies bring their premiums to
where they want them to be. That they they say
to cover all of this. Now that they've got to
make it so expensive that it would be through the roof.
And they've been trying to operate and the state, to
their credit, has said no. But that has been led
to this where the insurance companies either want to bail
(06:16):
out or cut coverage or just you know, say that
they're not going to do it all together because the
state won't let them raise rates to where they want to.
But already the rates are insane, but they're saying, with
the cost of rebuilding that they've got to make them
even higher.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
Yeah, man, craziness. We'll keep watching this and following it.
I'll be interested to see how this turns out. State
Farm is an enormous company, so we'll see how this
plays out.
Speaker 2 (06:41):
I like chio Patrick Mahomes and ask him to fix
it commercials right, Yeah, he does sports.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
He does sports. Everyone, Alex, thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Man. See
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