Insurance
Home›Insurance›Property Insurance›California links wildfire-risk reporting fines to roll…
California links wildfire-risk reporting fines to rolling 30-day penalties
Under the new law, penalties can compound every 30 days for each missed wildfire-risk report, with potential willful failures raised after written notice and capped at $100,000 in aggregate.
California Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 2724 into law on September 30, changing how the state penalizes insurers that miss mandatory wildfire-risk reporting.
Before the change, California charged a flat $5,000 fine for noncompliance, or $10,000 if the failure was willful, after admitted insurers writing $10 million or more in California premiums missed a two-year deadline to file fire-risk data on their residential book.
AB 2724 replaces that approach with a rolling clock, setting penalties of up to $5,000 per 30-day period of noncompliance. If an insurer still has not filed after receiving written notice from the insurance commissioner, the department can deem the failure willful and raise the penalty to $10,000 per 30-day period, with an aggregate cap of $100,000.
Insurance Business reports the bill also expands enforcement leverage by allowing the commissioner to use a violation as grounds for broader action, and it includes a second component aimed at California’s “distressed areas” framework that flags ZIP codes where homeowners face higher risk.