AB 1339: Department of Insurance: housing insurance study.

Existing law creates the Department of Insurance, headed by the Insurance Commissioner, and prescribes the departments powers and duties. Existing law generally regulates classes of insurance.

This bill would require the department, upon appropriation and in consultation with specified entities and affordable housing entities, to conduct a study of the property, liability, and builders risk insurance coverages available to affordable housing entities, as defined, that receive a grant, loan, or tax credit awarded by the Department of Housing and Community Development or the California Tax Credit Allocation Committee. The bill would require an insurer to provide necessary information requested by the commissioner for the study. The bill would require the department, in conducting the study, to, among other things, (1) collect information from relevant entities, (2) identify barriers to keeping the affordable housing entities appropriately insured, and (3) analyze and request any other relevant information that may help the department analyze the availability of property, liability, and builders risk insurance coverage for specified affordable housing entities. The bill would also require the department to analyze how, if at all, insurers consider specified determinations of offers or rate setting, including the level or source of income of an individual or group of individuals residing or intending to reside upon the property to be insured. The bill would require the department to submit a report on the study to the Senate Committee on Insurance and the Assembly Committee on Insurance within one year of the above-described appropriation. The bill would require that report to make recommendations on potential policy and budget options to address insurance coverage cost and access challenges for specified affordable housing entities as identified in the study. The bill would repeal these provisions as of January 1, 2031.

The bill would also make related findings and declarations.