Gov. Gavin Newsom today signed four bills to expand mortgage protections, strengthen insurance coverage, improve testing and remediation standards, and create a permanent framework to accelerate wildfire recovery.
The bills approved by the Legislature aim to strengthen California’s long-term wildfire recovery system, building on the state’s work with survivors of the Eaton and Palisades fires, and producing tools for wildfire survivors across the state.
The new laws create first-in-the-nation standards for testing and remediating hazardous wildfire smoke contamination for future fires and require insurers to cover qualifying smoke-damage testing, remediation, and restoration. The bills also permanently extend mortgage forbearance protections for disaster-affected homeowners.
Newsom signed the bills in Altadena at a meeting with fire survivors, advocates, community leaders, and the bill authors. The legislation builds on California’s ongoing recovery efforts in Los Angeles, where the state has worked with survivors, local governments and community partners to accelerate debris removal, permitting and rebuilding while providing mortgage relief and other assistance
More time, more flexibility on mortgages
For survivors still paying a mortgage on a home they can't live in, Assembly Bills 1842 and 1847 give families a path away from foreclosure and help them keep their homes.
The legislation makes permanent the kind of mortgage forbearance protections the Governor secured directly from loan servicers after the LA fires — automatic protections and processes in law following a disaster to provide borrowers a path away from foreclosure.
This landmark legislation also doubles the mortgage forbearance window available by law for LA fire survivors, from 12 months to 24 months, and requires servicers to offer borrowers the option to defer repayment of missed payments until the end of the loan, unless prohibited by investor contract terms or servicing guidelines.
The Governor and the Legislature are reportedly stil working to close the gap between what insurance companies will pay out and the cost of rebuilding through the recently appropriated $100 million Disaster Rebuilding Fund, which will make loans for rebuilding more accessible and affordable.
Science-backed standards for smoke damage claims
The Department of Insurance estimates that more than 13,000 of the roughly 40,000 insurance claims filed after the January 2025 fires involve smoke damage to homes that never burned.
Until now, no state in the country had enforceable standards for how those homes should be tested, cleaned, or restored. Two Assembly bills signed into law this week create first-in-the-nation standards for smoke damage claims.
The legislation directs the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) and the California Air Resources Board to develop the state's first protections for testing, remediation, and restoration of lead and asbestos contamination from wildfire smoke, for homes within a fire's zip codes. It also requires guidance to help schools recover after a wildfire.
The legislation also requires insurers to pay for lead and asbestos testing and remediation in smoke-damaged homes within a wildfire zone, cover full cleanup and restoration to pre-loss condition, and bars insurers from cutting off additional living expense coverage until a home is actually remediated and safe to occupy.
"Twenty months since the Eaton Fire tore through my community, too many of my neighbors are still asking basic questions: is it safe to return home, and can I afford to rebuild?,” said Assemblymember John Harabedian (D-Pasadena). “ I'm honored to have authored first-in-the-nation legislation to help answer those questions by giving wildfire survivors scientific certainty in remediating smoke damage and providing essential mortgage relief.“
