Residential property insurance.

Existing law generally regulates classes of insurance, including residential property insurance. Under existing law, the California FAIR (fair access to insurance requirements) Plan Association, a joint reinsurance association in which all insurers licensed to write basic property insurance participate, administers a program for the equitable apportionment of basic property insurance for persons who are unable to obtain that coverage through normal channels. Existing law requires the association to establish and maintain an Internet Web site and a toll-free telephone number through which a person may receive assistance in applying for basic property insurance. Existing law requires an insurer member of the plan to provide the Internet Web site address and toll-free telephone number to an applicant who is denied coverage. This bill would require the Department of Insurance to establish the California Home Insurance Finder on its Internet Web site to help homeowners connect with an insurance agent or broker for residential property insurance. The bill would require the department to annually survey agents, brokers, and insurers about inclusion in the finder, and post participants' names, addresses, phone numbers, and Internet Web sites, if available, to the finder on or before July 1, 2020. The bill would require the commissioner to use social media and other tools to promote the finder, and to create materials in the most common languages used in California. The bill would require an insurer to disclose specified information to an applicant who is denied coverage or a policyholder whose policy is canceled or not renewed, including, on or after July 1, 2020, information about the finder. The bill would require specified information, including the Internet Web site address of the department's Homeowners Coverage Comparison Tool, to be disclosed on or after July 1, 2020, upon an offer of a policy of residential property insurance if specified conditions are met. The bill would require a residential property insurer to notify the department on or before February 1 of each year of the amount of extended replacement cost coverage it offers in California, if the amount is different from that of the previous year, and would require the department to use this information to annually update the Homeowners Coverage Comparison Tool.