Home, auto and the rest of your California household, handled in one place.

California FAIR Plan policy growth slowed to 1.9% in the second quarter of 2026, the third consecutive quarter of slowing growth and the lowest quarterly increase since 2022. The Plan still grew overall, by 12,305 policies during the quarter, and the Department of Insurance estimates approximately 24,000 policies left the FAIR Plan during April and May 2026 (California Department of Insurance, "FAIR Plan growth slows below 2% as California's insurance market continues to show signs of recovery," August 3, 2026). The Plan's own data puts 696,562 policies in force as of June 2026, a 157% increase since September 2022 (California FAIR Plan, Key Statistics and Data, data through June 2026, page updated July 28, 2026). Growth is slowing. The FAIR Plan is not shrinking overall, and slowing growth is not the same thing as a fixed market.

What usually brings a California household here

It's rarely curiosity. It's a letter. The carrier is not renewing the home policy and the notice has a date on it. Or the renewal arrived and the number moved enough that you started looking. Or you bought a place with brush behind it and the lender wants proof of coverage before closing. Or you're already on the FAIR Plan and the mortgage servicer wrote back asking why the policy doesn't show liability coverage.

Those are all different problems with different answers, and none of them is solved by a quote form alone. What you need first is a straight read on what is realistic for your address and your household. That is what this section of the site is for.

What we can place for a California household

The core of most California households is two policies. A homeowners policy covers the structure, your belongings, your personal liability, and loss of use, which is the part that pays for somewhere to live while the home is being repaired after a covered loss. An auto policy covers your liability to other people, plus your own vehicles if you carry comprehensive and collision. If you want both looked at together, start with home and auto in California.

Around those two sit the policies people forget. Renters if you lease. Condo if an association owns the building shell and you own the inside. Landlord coverage if you own a place you don't live in. A personal umbrella, which is an extra layer of liability limit that sits above your home and auto policies and only pays after those underlying limits are used up. And two policies California households buy separately, earthquake and flood.

The three things a California home policy will not cover

Earthquake. Standard homeowners, renters and condo policies generally exclude earthquake damage. California handles this with a rule rather than a mandate: if you have homeowners insurance in California, your company has to offer to sell you earthquake coverage, in writing, every other year, and the offer has to state the limits, the deductible and the premium. You get 30 days to accept, counted from the date the company mails the offer, and if you do not reply you have rejected it (California Department of Insurance, Earthquake Insurance, revised April 25, 2024). Silence counts as no. That surprises people.

Flood. Most homeowners insurance does not cover flood damage, and almost one third of National Flood Insurance Program claims come from outside high risk flood areas (FEMA, FloodSmart). California adds a wrinkle: after a wildfire, flood risk on burned ground stays significantly higher until vegetation is restored, up to five years (FEMA, FloodSmart, Wildfires). Being outside a mapped flood zone isn't the same as being safe from flooding.

Whatever the FAIR Plan leaves out. If your home ends up on the California FAIR Plan, understand what you bought. The FAIR Plan Dwelling Fire Policy is a named peril policy, which means it pays only for the specific causes of loss listed in it: fire and lightning, internal explosion, and smoke. Vandalism and malicious mischief are optional at additional cost (California FAIR Plan, Dwelling). The Plan's own site says difference in conditions coverage, usually called DIC, provides water damage, theft and liability coverage that is not available through the Plan, and that the California FAIR Plan does not offer DIC policies (California FAIR Plan, Difference in Conditions). The Department of Insurance keeps the list of carriers that sell DIC. So a FAIR Plan household is normally running two policies, not one. We go through the policy form itself on the California FAIR Plan insurance page, and the second policy on the FAIR Plan companion and DIC coverage page.

What drives eligibility and price in California

We don't publish premium figures we haven't quoted, and we don't use industry averages. What we can tell you is what the underwriters are actually looking at.

On the home side: where the property sits and what is burning distance from it, roof age and roof material, defensible space and home hardening work you have done, the age and condition of the plumbing, wiring and heating, prior claims, whether the home is owner occupied or rented or vacant, the cost to rebuild it at today's construction prices, and each carrier's appetite for property in that area at that moment. Appetite changes. A carrier that declined you last year may look at it this year, and the reverse is also true.

On the auto side: driving record and points, how long each driver has been licensed, everyone in the household who has access to the cars, the vehicles themselves, the ZIP code where they are parked overnight, annual mileage and how the car is used, the limits and deductibles you pick, and whether you have had continuous coverage or a gap.

When we have real quoted California figures to publish, they will go in this section. Until then, ask us for numbers on your actual household rather than trusting a range you read somewhere.

The California rules and market conditions that change your options

The auto minimum went up. California's minimum liability limits are now $30,000 for injury or death to one person, $60,000 for injury or death to more than one person, and $15,000 for property damage, commonly written as 30/60/15 (California DMV, Insurance Requirements). That took effect January 1, 2025 under SB 1107, replacing the old 15/30/5. The same bill schedules another increase on January 1, 2035, adding $20,000, $40,000 and $10,000 to those three numbers (SB 1107, 2021-22). Today's minimum is not permanent.

The Good Driver rule is more forgiving than people think. Under California law, a Good Driver is someone licensed for at least three consecutive years with no more than one point on their record, and your rate as a Good Driver has to be at least 20% below what the same insurer would otherwise charge (California Department of Insurance, Automobile Insurance). The Department adds that the driver also must not have been principally at fault in an accident that resulted in bodily injury or death, and that the obligation falls on personal auto insurers subject to Proposition 103 (CDI Bulletin 2023-7, December 21, 2023). One point doesn't disqualify you. Plenty of people assume it does and never ask.

More home carriers are filing to grow, and that does not mean your address qualifies. On July 23, 2026 the Department of Insurance said 11 homeowners insurance groups and 2 major commercial insurers had committed to grow in California under its Sustainable Insurance Strategy, naming Farmers, Mercury, Auto Club of Southern California, CSAA, USAA, Liberty Mutual, Travelers, Pacific Specialty, California Casualty, Horace Mann and MS Transverse (CDI Consumer Alert, July 23, 2026). The Department also designates 662 ZIP codes as distressed areas, a figure it updates annually, drawn from lists published in March 2025 (CDI, Sustainable Insurance Strategy). More companies filing to write is real. It's not a promise about one property, and it doesn't mean every home can return to a standard carrier.

Where to start, by what you are actually dealing with

How Vantage Point Risk works a California household file

We are independent, so we're not sending everything to one company. We take the household as a whole, quote the markets that fit it, and show you what each one came back with, including the ones that declined. We read the forms, not just the price, because in California the difference between two proposals is often a wildfire deductible, a roof settlement clause, or an exclusion sitting three pages in.

We also tell you when we can't help. If the answer for your address is the FAIR Plan plus a DIC policy, we'll say that plainly rather than quoting something that won't stand up. Payment is either pay in full or financed, depending on what the carrier offers on the policy.

We work from our office in Eugene, Oregon, and we are licensed in California. Our California family agency, Coverguard Insurance Agency, is a DBA of Vantage Point Risk Partners LLC based in Whittier and runs from its own site. Coverage is always subject to policy terms, underwriting and availability.

What to ask, and what to send us

Send these and we can give you a real answer instead of a guess:

• The declarations page for every policy you have, home, auto, umbrella, anything else
• Any nonrenewal or cancellation notice, including its date
• Roof age, roof material, and the date of any replacement
• Defensible space and home hardening work, with photos or receipts if you have them
• Claims in the last five years, on any policy
• Everyone in the household who drives, including anyone on a permit
• Vehicles, with VINs, and the address where they are parked overnight
• Anything your lender is requiring in writing

And these are worth asking whoever you talk to, us included:

• Which carriers did you actually submit to, and which declined?
• Is the dwelling limit replacement cost, and how was it calculated?
• Is there a separate wildfire or brush deductible on this policy?
• Was earthquake coverage offered to me, and did I sign a rejection?
• If this is a FAIR Plan policy, what is covering liability, water damage and theft?

Richard Sweet, owner of Vantage Point Risk and an independent insurance advisor. Last reviewed August 4, 2026. How we review this.