Personal Insurance

What insurance does California actually require of a household?

Auto liability, and nothing else by statute. Vehicle Code section 16056 sets the minimums at $30,000 per person and $60,000 per accident for injury and $15,000 for property damage since January 1, 2025. It schedules a further increase on January 1, 2035 to $50,000, $100,000 and $25,000. No California law requires homeowners, renters, condo, umbrella or life insurance. Those come from contracts: a lender’s deed of trust, a lease, a condo association’s rules. A lender’s demand has a ceiling, since Civil Code section 2955.5 stops it from requiring hazard coverage above the replacement value of the improvements. Earthquake coverage is not required either, but Insurance Code section 10081 requires your insurer to offer it with every home, condo and renters policy. The gap between what the law requires and what a Granada Hills household actually needs is the whole reason the pages below exist.

How does a personal umbrella sit over home and auto?

It pays above the liability limits on your home and auto policies once those are exhausted, and it will not attach unless those underlying limits meet the level the umbrella carrier requires. Our umbrella page gives the ranges carriers commonly ask for. It matters more in California than most places because of the size of injury verdicts and the 2025 change to the auto minimums. A household still carrying the old $15,000 per-person limit is now below the legal floor, and no umbrella will sit on it. Raise the underlying limits first, then add the umbrella. The order is not optional.

What changed in California insurance in 2025 and 2026 that affects my household?

Four things. The auto minimums doubled on January 1, 2025. The Department of Insurance’s Sustainable Insurance Strategy let insurers price wildfire with catastrophe models and reinsurance costs, in exchange for writing in high-risk areas at 85 percent of their statewide share. By August 2025 three wildfire models had been cleared for use. After the Los Angeles fires the FAIR Plan levied a $1 billion assessment on its member insurers, half of which could be passed to policyholders as a temporary fee. The department reported in 2026 that the median fee was $28 a year. And SB 495, signed in October 2025, requires an insurer to advance 60 percent of the contents limit, up to $350,000, without an itemized inventory after a total loss in a declared emergency. It applies to every policy issued or renewed from July 1, 2026. Each of these shows up on a renewal in the Valley this year. The FAIR Plan and DIC page and the home insurance page take them one at a time.

How does bundling home and auto work, and when does it not save money?

A multi-policy discount is one of the optional auto rating factors California allows under 10 CCR 2632.5, so the discount is real and regulated. It is also one factor among many, and the three mandatory factors, your driving record, your annual mileage and your years licensed, carry the most weight. Bundling stops saving money in three common cases. When one carrier’s home rate is high enough that another carrier’s unbundled home policy beats the discount. When the home is on the FAIR Plan with a separate DIC, which usually cannot bundle with the auto carrier at all. And when a non-renewal on one policy quietly removes the discount from the other. We quote it both ways rather than assume.

How are California rates set, and what does Proposition 103 have to do with it?

Every rate has to be approved before it is used. Insurance Code section 1861.05, part of Proposition 103, says no rate may be approved or remain in effect that is excessive, inadequate or unfairly discriminatory. The insurer must file a complete application and carry the burden of proving it. Personal auto rating is confined to the factors in 10 CCR 2632.5, which is why credit history is not used on California auto policies: it is not on the list. Section 1861.025 guarantees a good driver, licensed three years with no more than one point and no at-fault injury accident, a rate at least 20 percent below what the same carrier charges otherwise. None of this makes insurance cheap. It does mean the rate on your renewal was filed with and approved by the state, and that the reasons for it are public.

What should I do if I get a non-renewal notice?

Read the reason, then start early. Insurance Code section 678 requires a residential non-renewal to arrive at least 75 days before the policy ends and to state the specific reasons. It must also tell you that you may have the matter reviewed by the Department of Insurance. If the notice is late, the policy continues on its existing terms. If the reason is wildfire and your ZIP code is within or adjacent to a recent fire perimeter, section 675.1 may bar the non-renewal for a year after the emergency declaration. Otherwise the 75 days are for marketing the home. The department’s Home Insurance Finder lists insurers writing in high-risk regions, and the FAIR Plan with a DIC is the fallback when the standard market will not write it. Bring us the notice the day it arrives, not the week before it expires.

How does a claim or an at-fault accident affect my rates?

On auto, only a principally at-fault accident counts. Under 10 CCR 2632.13 that means your actions were at least 51 percent of the cause and the accident involved injury or more than $1,000 in damage. You are presumed not at fault if you were lawfully parked, struck from behind without a moving violation, hit by a hit-and-run driver, or hit an animal or a falling object. The insurer must tell you in writing when it finds you at fault, and you can ask for reconsideration within 30 days. A claim under your own comprehensive, medical payments or rental reimbursement coverage is not a rating factor. On home policies there is no equivalent regulation; claims history is an underwriting consideration, and section 678 governs how a carrier has to tell you if it decides not to renew.

How do I read my declarations page, and when should I call the Department of Insurance?

The declarations page is the one-page summary of the contract. It lists the insurer’s full legal name, your name and address, the policy number and the effective and expiration dates. It then lists each coverage with its limit and deductible, the vehicles or the property, and the endorsements attached. If a coverage you expected is not listed there, you do not have it. The department’s consumer hotline is 800-927-4357, and its Request for Assistance process sends a complaint to the insurer and reviews whether the insurer complied with the law. It does not decide fault or act as your lawyer. Call us first for anything on the declarations page, and call the department when an insurer has ignored a deadline or a notice rule. Some placements are quick. Others need underwriting review or a wholesale market, and those take longer. Either way you know which applies before you decide. Start a personal insurance quote or call the Granada Hills office.

Statute and regulation citations, the auto minimums and the 2025–2026 changes current as of September 2026. Discounts, underlying limit requirements and underwriting rules vary by carrier; your own policy wording controls.