Group Urges Quake Insurance Reform

On the seventh anniversary of the devastating Northridge earthquake, a San Fernando Valley homeowners’ group Wednesday encouraged property owners to settle unresolved claims and called for California earthquake insurance reform.

The group, Community Assisting Recovery Inc. (CARe), gathered in front of a quake-damaged home on Balmoral Lane in West Hills to encourage property owners to take advantage of a new law allowing them to file revised claims with their insurance companies.

The law, SB 1899, allows most earthquake insurance policyholders to submit claims by Jan. 1, 2002, even if they had previously missed their filing deadline. To be eligible, however, policyholders must have contacted their insurance companies about the damage before Jan. 1, 2000.

Jessica Hamper, whose Balmoral Lane home served as a backdrop for Wednesday’s news conference, said insurance claims adjusters initially estimated in 1995 that the damage done to her home during the Jan. 17, 1994, quake was much less than her $20,000 deductible.

Since then, Hamper said, her family room began to separate from the rest of the house and ceiling cracks appeared. After CARe inspectors estimated damage at $75,000, Hamper has reopened her claim.

State Treasurer Philip Angelides joined CARe members in their call for an overhaul of the California Earthquake Authority.

The CEA, a public entity that provides insurance coverage to more than 850,000 property owners statewide, should be restructured to ensure its ability to meet its obligations to policyholders, he said.

“It is time to make sure that earthquake victims are not victimized three times,” Angelides said, “by the earthquake, insurance claims and the authority.”