How to File a Property Damage Claim After a Wildfire in California

The First 72 Hours

Once the evacuation order lifts and you are physically safe, the clock starts on a process that will shape the next year of your life. The single most valuable thing you can do in the first three days is start a paper trail. Insurance companies pay claims based on documentation, not memory.

Open the claim immediately by phone. Write down the claim number, the adjuster's name, the date, and the time of every call. Keep every text and email. Save every receipt, including the gas, the hotel, the toothbrush, and the dog food.

If you cannot return to the property, file the claim anyway. You do not need to physically inspect the loss to start the claim, and waiting can cost you. California Insurance Code section 2071 requires you to give written notice of loss "as soon as practicable," and most policies have their own short deadlines tucked into the fine print.

What Your California Homeowners Policy Should Cover

A standard California homeowners policy generally has four coverage buckets that all apply after a wildfire. You are entitled to claim under each one independently:

• Coverage A: Dwelling. The structure itself, plus attached structures like an attached garage. Pays to rebuild your home.
• Coverage B: Other structures. Detached garages, sheds, fences, gazebos, pool houses, and the like. Usually 10 percent of Coverage A.
• Coverage C: Personal property. Everything inside the house. Furniture, clothing, electronics, kitchenware, art, tools. Usually 50 to 75 percent of Coverage A.
• Coverage D: Loss of use, also called Additional Living Expenses or ALE. Pays for the difference between your normal cost of living and what you are now spending while displaced. Hotels, rental homes, restaurant meals over your usual grocery budget, laundry, pet boarding, extra mileage. California law extended ALE to a minimum of 24 months for total losses in declared disasters, and many policies are longer.

Smoke damage, ash, soot, and char are also covered even if your house is still standing. So is loss from firefighter water and from utilities cut during the fire. If anyone tells you smoke damage is not covered, get that in writing.

Document Everything Before You Touch Anything

Before you remove debris, throw out a single ruined item, or sign anything, document the loss. The carrier's adjuster will eventually inspect, but their photos will be from their angle and their notes. You need yours.

Photograph and video the entire property. Walk every room and every exterior elevation. Record video as you walk and narrate what you see. Capture wide shots and close-ups. Even charred remains tell a story to a forensic adjuster.

Build a personal property inventory. List every destroyed item with brand, age, original price, and replacement cost. Look up purchase records in old emails, Amazon, Costco, Best Buy, Apple, and credit card statements. Pull in family members. The carrier expects an inventory, and a thorough one is worth tens of thousands of dollars.

Find your declarations page. The dec page is the cover sheet of your policy that lists your coverage limits. If you cannot find it, ask the carrier in writing for a complete certified copy of the policy. You are entitled to it under California Insurance Code section 2084.

Additional Living Expenses: The Coverage People Forget

Most California homeowners do not realize their ALE coverage is a separate pot of money that has nothing to do with the value of the house. It is the carrier's promise to keep you living at the same standard you had before the fire while your home is unlivable.

That means the carrier should pay for a comparable rental in your area, even if the local market spiked after the fire. It means restaurant meals when your rental kitchen is half-stocked. It means pet boarding, extra commute miles, replacement school uniforms, dry cleaning, and storage. Keep every receipt.

Carriers routinely lowball ALE by quoting outdated rental comps or refusing to advance funds. California Insurance Code section 2051.5 forces them to extend coverage when the area's housing market has changed because of the disaster. Push back, in writing, every time.

The Adjuster Is Not Your Friend

The field adjuster who shows up after a wildfire is paid by the insurance company, not by you. Most are decent people doing a hard job, but their job is to close your file at the lowest reasonable cost. Three things to remember when they walk the property:

• Do not guess. If you do not know the answer to a question about a value, an age, or what you used a room for, say so. Bad guesses become locked-in admissions.
• Do not sign a release. A partial payment is not a final payment. Do not sign anything called a "release," "full and final settlement," or "proof of loss" without legal review. You can accept advances without giving up the right to claim more.
• Do not let them limit smoke or ash testing. California recognizes that smoke and soot can permanently contaminate textiles, drywall, ducting, insulation, and personal property. Demand independent industrial hygienist testing if the carrier tries to clean instead of replace.

Get every coverage decision in writing. If an adjuster says something is "not covered," ask them to send the denial in writing with the policy section they are relying on. Most of the time the request alone reverses the call.

What If You Are Underinsured?

Many California wildfire victims discover their dwelling limit is far less than the cost to rebuild, often by 30 to 50 percent. This usually traces back to the carrier or agent using outdated cost estimators or square footage figures. You are not stuck.

California's Extended Replacement Cost endorsements add 25 to 50 percent above your dwelling limit. Code Upgrade coverage pays the cost of bringing the rebuild up to current building code, which after a fire can be substantial. Inflation Guard adjusts the limit upward annually. Check whether you have these endorsements before agreeing to a number.

If the policy limit was set negligently low, you may also have a claim against the agent or carrier for the gap. Agents and brokers in California have a duty to use reasonable care when setting your coverage. We have recovered six and seven figures for clients whose policies were knowingly written below replacement cost.

Bad Faith and the Hammer in California Law

California is one of the toughest states in the country on insurance bad faith. Under the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, your carrier owes you more than just the policy limit. It owes you a fair, prompt, and reasonable investigation and a fair settlement.

Common bad faith conduct after wildfires includes unreasonable delay, ignoring evidence, twisting policy language, lowballing replacement cost without basis, refusing to advance ALE, demanding documentation the carrier already has, and pressuring early settlement before the full scope of loss is known.

If the carrier acts in bad faith, you can recover not only the policy benefits but also emotional distress damages, attorneys' fees under Brandt v. Superior Court, and in egregious cases, punitive damages. The threat of bad faith liability is often what gets a stuck claim moving.

How Long Do You Have to File and Sue?

The general rule for property damage in California is two years. But fire claims have their own rules. California Insurance Code section 2071 sets a one-year suit limitations period from "inception of the loss," subject to important exceptions:

• The clock is paused while the carrier is actively investigating the claim. It does not start running again until the carrier denies in writing.
• For declared disasters, recent California legislation has extended deadlines. Check the specific fire and the year. Do not assume.
• Bad faith claims have a separate two-year clock that runs from the bad faith conduct, not the fire.

If you are within a year of the fire and still negotiating, you are running out of time even if the claim feels alive. Talk to a lawyer well before the anniversary.

When to Call a Lawyer

Not every wildfire claim needs a lawyer. If your carrier paid your full limits quickly, your ALE is being honored, and you and the contractor agree on the rebuild number, you are likely fine without one.

Call us when any of the following is happening:

• The carrier is denying coverage or denying smoke damage
• You are being lowballed on personal property or dwelling replacement cost
• ALE is being cut off or capped below market rents
• The carrier is dragging its feet, requesting the same documents repeatedly, or refusing to advance funds
• You believe your policy was sold to you with limits well below replacement cost
• You are being asked to sign a "full and final" release
• The fire was started by a utility, a neighbor, or another responsible party and there may be a third-party recovery beyond the policy

How We Get Paid

We take wildfire and property damage cases on contingency. You pay nothing upfront. Our fee is 20 percent of the recovery, well below the industry standard of 33 percent. If we do not recover money for you, you owe us nothing. The free consultation comes with a written case evaluation.

The Justice Brothers handle property damage claims throughout California from our Los Angeles office. We send a preservation letter the day we sign you up. We retain public adjusters, contractors, contents experts, and industrial hygienists at our cost. We negotiate hard. If the carrier will not be reasonable, we file suit and try the case.

Learn more about our California property damage practice, or read about the related personal injury claims that often follow a fire when smoke inhalation, evacuation injuries, or carbon monoxide exposure cause harm to people on top of property.