insurance
Homeowners could get the full math behind insurance claims
California’s SB 877 would make insurers hand over more of the documents that shape repair and loss figures after fire and other covered damage. It also adds a written update when a claim gets reassigned for the third time in six months.
A California homeowner disputing a fire or other property claim could get a clearer view of how the insurer reached its numbers. SB 877 would widen access to claim documents and require a status report after repeated adjuster changes.
- Would open up repair estimates, appraisals and loss calculations
- Would require notice that claim documents can be requested
- Would add a status report after repeated adjuster changes
- Keeps privileged and fraud-related material protected
- In California, a homeowner trying to settle a fire or other property claim can get stuck arguing over figures they cannot see
In California, a homeowner trying to settle a fire or other property claim can get stuck arguing over figures they cannot see. SB 877, introduced by Senator Pérez, would make insurers share a wider set of claim-related documents, including repair estimates, appraisals, scopes of loss, and valuation or loss-adjustment calculations, whether they are preliminary or final.
A paper trail for the loss
The point is not to hand over everything. The bill keeps attorney-client material, attorney work product, fraud-related documents and medically privileged information out of the exchange, and it does not change existing litigation discovery rights. But it would push more of the math into the open for the person on the other side of the claim.
It would also require insurers to tell every claimant that they can ask for those records. That matters because the fight over a property claim often turns less on whether damage happened than on how much it is worth, and who has the better paperwork to prove it.
When the claim keeps changing hands
SB 877 also tries to slow down a familiar source of frustration: the claim that seems to get reset every time a new adjuster appears. If an insurer assigns a third, or later, adjuster within six months, it would have to send the homeowner a written status report explaining major decisions and disputes, including the amount of loss to structures or contents and whether construction or design experts were brought in.
That kind of handoff can leave homeowners feeling as if they are starting over just when they need continuity most. The bill would not eliminate the dispute, but it would make the insurer show its work more clearly.