The FAIR plan offers property insurance to Californians in areas where no other option is available through a regular insurance company.
And for years, policyholders have complained about the plan’s refusal to cover smoke damage that’s not visible to the naked eye or can’t be detected by smell.
That’s what triggered a lawsuit in 2021. A Coleville homeowner whose property was damaged after a wildfire filed a claim, but had portions of it denied due to the FAIR plan’s policy on smoke damage.
The homeowner’s lawyer, Dylan Schaffer, said “Fair Plan has historically just simply paid nothing. I mean, their attitude is your house is dirty, not damaged, you just got to go sweep it up. They will say ‘we don’t pay for household cleaning.’ That’s their line.”
He says it’s not just a matter of cleanliness. Schaffer says the impacts from smoke are better characterized as chemical and contamination damage.
Schaffer adds “by contamination, what I mean is fuel that has been made into gases by very very hot fires and is put up into the air and the lands on people’s, inside people’s houses, and that makes the houses unsafe to live in.”
The court has until May to decide what the decision actionably means for the FAIR plan.
