Non-Renewed in California: What Happens Next, What the Notice Must Tell You, and How to Replace the Policy

A non-renewal notice is a decision about your insurer's book of business, not a verdict on your house, and in California it comes with a clock and a set of rights that most people never use. If you are holding one, this is the order of operations: read what the notice is required to tell you, check whether a wildfire moratorium makes the notice unlawful, get the wildfire risk score the insurer must give you and appeal it if it is wrong, and then replace the policy in the sequence the law and the market actually follow, admitted carriers first, surplus lines second, the FAIR Plan plus a Difference in Conditions policy last. This article is about homes and other residential property of one to four units; a short section near the end covers commercial buildings. Every date and rule below is cited to the statute, regulation or Department of Insurance document that says it, as of October 30, 2026.

What the notice must say, and when it must arrive

Insurance Code section 678 governs residential property policies covering one to four units. For policies expiring on or after July 1, 2020, an insurer that is not renewing must deliver the notice at least 75 days before the policy expires. If the notice arrives late, "the existing policy, with no change in its terms and conditions, shall remain in effect for 75 days" from the date it is delivered or mailed (Ins. Code § 678(c)). A mailed notice gets the extra days the Code of Civil Procedure allows for mailing. Those are not rules of thumb; they are the terms of your contract extension if the carrier is late.

The notice must also carry specific content:

Required element	Statutory basis
"The specific reason or reasons for the nonrenewal"	§ 678(a)(1)(B)(i)
The insurer's consumer-inquiry telephone number	§ 678(a)(1)(B)(ii)
A statement that, if you have contacted the insurer and remain unsatisfied, you may have the matter reviewed by the Department of Insurance, with its website, its telephone number, (800) 927-HELP (4357), and the mailing address of its Consumer Services Division	§ 678(a)(1)(B)(iv)
A consumer notice describing the California Home Insurance Finder, the FAIR Plan as "insurer of last resort," the fact that FAIR Plan policies "may not cover liability, theft, or water damage," and that a Difference in Conditions policy "should be considered"	§ 678(e)

Read the stated reason carefully. "Wildfire risk" or "brush exposure" sends you to the moratorium check and the risk-score appeal below. A reason tied to the roof, the electrical panel, a prior claim, or an inspection finding sends you to a different conversation: those are conditions you may be able to document or fix before the policy expires, and some carriers will rescind a non-renewal when the condition is corrected.

First check: does a moratorium make the notice unlawful?

Insurance Code section 675.1 prohibits an insurer from cancelling or refusing to renew a residential policy "for one year after the declaration" of a state of emergency, for any property "located in any ZIP Code within or adjacent to the fire perimeter," when the action is "based solely on the fact that the insured structure is located in an area in which a wildfire has occurred." The protection applies to every residential policy in effect when the emergency was declared (Ins. Code § 675.1(b)). The year runs from the Governor's declaration, and the Insurance Commissioner issues a bulletin naming the ZIP codes.

As of October 30, 2026, three residential moratoriums are in force:

Fire and bulletin	Emergency declared	Protection runs to	ZIP codes
Gann Fire, Calaveras County (Bulletin 2026-6)	August 6, 2026	August 6, 2027	22
Gifford Fire, San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties (Bulletin 2026-01)	December 23, 2025	December 23, 2026	29
Pack Fire, Mono County (Bulletin 2025-17)	December 9, 2025	December 9, 2026	4

The Department of Insurance keeps a ZIP code lookup for active moratoriums and spells out the remedy: a protected policyholder who receives a wildfire-risk non-renewal "should contact your insurance company to seek a reinstatement of the policy," and file a Request for Assistance with the Department if the insurer refuses. The statute's exceptions are narrow, willful or grossly negligent acts by the insured, losses unrelated to the disaster, or physical changes that make the property uninsurable; a non-renewal for wildfire risk alone is not among them.

If your home was a total loss in a declared disaster, a separate part of the same section applies: the insurer "shall offer, for at least the next two annual renewal periods, but no less than 24 months of coverage from the date of the loss, to renew the policy," and may not cancel while the primary structure is being rebuilt except for the grounds that permit mid-term cancellation generally (§ 675.1(a)(2) and (a)(3)).

Second: get your wildfire risk score, and appeal it

Under a regulation operative October 14, 2022 (insurers had 180 days from its filing to put the procedure in place), every insurer that uses wildfire risk in its rating must give you, in writing, the wildfire risk score or classification it assigned to your property, and must do so "at least seventy-five (75) days prior to any nonrenewal," at least 45 days before each renewal, and within 15 days of a completed application (10 CCR § 2644.9(h)). The disclosure has to include the range of possible scores, where yours sits, "the impact of the score or classification on the rate or premium," "a detailed written explanation of why the policyholder or applicant received the assigned score or classification," the mitigation measures that would lower it, and "the amount of premium reduction" each measure would produce (§ 2644.9(k)).

You also have "the right to appeal orally or in writing that assignment directly to the insurer." The insurer must acknowledge the appeal in writing within ten calendar days and respond "with a reconsideration and decision within thirty (30) calendar days" (§ 2644.9(i)). Scores are built from models and parcel data that can be wrong about the specific house: a Class A roof recorded as wood shake, a cleared lot scored as brush, a stucco wall logged as siding. The appeal is where that can get fixed, and a corrected score sometimes changes the carrier's answer.

The same regulation requires every wildfire rating plan to take into account and reflect each of a list of mitigation factors, with the rate based in part on the reduced risk from each: a Class A roof, enclosed eaves, fire-resistant vents, multipane windows or shutters, six inches of noncombustible clearance at the base of walls, nothing combustible within five feet of the structure including fences and gates, no combustible structures within thirty feet, cleared decks, compliance with the Public Resources Code section 4291 defensible-space rules, and membership in a Firewise USA site or a Board of Forestry Fire Risk Reduction Community (§ 2644.9(d)). Document what your home already has. The photographs and receipts you assemble for the appeal are the same ones the next underwriter will want.

Note what this regulation does not do: it governs rating and disclosure, not the right to non-renew. A carrier that follows it can still leave your ZIP code. The score and the appeal are leverage for the replacement, not a bar to the notice.

The replacement, in the order it actually happens

Admitted carriers first. A home that one admitted carrier dropped is not a home every admitted carrier refuses. Appetites differ by model, by mitigation credit, by roof age, and by how much business a carrier has already written in your ZIP code. The state's Sustainable Insurance Strategy regulations, filed in December 2024, allow insurers to use approved catastrophe models in rates in exchange for commitments to write in distressed areas, which the Department describes as "equivalent to no less than 85% of their statewide market share" (CDI, December 13, 2024), or, as an alternative the regulation allows any insurer, increasing the number of policies it writes in those areas by at least 5 percent (10 CCR § 2644.4.8(d)(2)). On July 13, 2026 the Department reported eleven homeowners insurance groups and two commercial insurers "committing to stay and grow in the state," naming Farmers, Mercury, the Auto Club of Southern California, CSAA, USAA, Liberty Mutual, Travelers, Pacific Specialty, California Casualty and Horace Mann among them (CDI alert, July 13, 2026); on August 3, 2026 it estimated that about 24,000 policies had left the FAIR Plan in April and May of this year (CDI, August 3, 2026); and on September 18, 2026 it put the count of groups that had filed or been approved under the new framework at twelve, noting that State Farm General and Allstate had filed to reopen for new homeowners business, though neither was writing new policies yet (CDI alert, September 18, 2026). The Department has not yet published a count of new policies actually written in distressed areas, so treat the commitments as a reason to market widely, not as a guarantee about any one house. The Department's Home Insurance Finder lists companies and agents writing in your area, with a filter for insurers that may write in higher fire-risk areas.

Surplus lines second, and only after the search. When admitted carriers decline, California law lets a surplus line broker place the risk with a non-admitted insurer "only if that insurance cannot be procured from insurers admitted for the particular class or classes of insurance and that actually write the particular type of insurance in this state." Declinations from three admitted insurers that write the coverage are "prima facie evidence that a diligent search among admitted insurers has been made," documented on the Commissioner's diligent search form (Ins. Code § 1763(a), (b)). This is the broker's statutory duty, not yours, and it is why a competent placement runs the admitted market first in fact and not just in theory. Surplus lines policies for wildfire-exposed homes are usually comprehensive (dwelling, contents, liability, loss of use) and carry the state surplus lines tax and stamping fee on top of premium. Our article on California FAIR Plan alternatives covers what these placements look like.

The FAIR Plan plus a DIC policy, last. The California FAIR Plan is the insurer of last resort, available to owners "unable to purchase coverage with a traditional insurance company." Its dwelling policy is a named-peril form covering fire, lightning, internal explosion and smoke, with optional extended coverage for windstorm, hail, explosion, riot, aircraft, vehicles and volcanic eruption, and optional vandalism coverage; it does not cover liability, theft or water damage (California FAIR Plan, Dwelling Fire Policy; policy form CFP 00 01, edition 05/2026). The combined dwelling limit for residential policies has been $3,000,000 since April 1, 2020 (CDI, November 14, 2019). To fill the gaps you buy a Difference in Conditions policy from a separate insurer; the FAIR Plan does not sell them, and the Department keeps a list of insurers that do. A FAIR Plan policy plus a DIC, two policies from two companies, usually costs more than a single comprehensive policy and covers less, which is why it is the benchmark the alternatives must beat, not the default. One more cost to know about: after the January 2025 Los Angeles fires the FAIR Plan assessed its member insurers $1 billion, and the Commissioner's 2024 orders amending the FAIR Plan's Plan of Operation let insurers apply to recoup up to half of that from their own policyholders as a "Temporary Supplemental Fee," collected over two years as a percentage of premium and subject to the Department's approval (CDI Bulletin 2024-8, September 3, 2024; CDI Bulletin 2025-4, February 11, 2025). The amount on any given policy is set by that insurer's approved filing.

The 75 days, in order

When	What to do
Day of the notice	Read the stated reason. Check the moratorium ZIP lookup. Pull your declarations page, the last five years of loss history, and photographs of roof, eaves, vents, windows, and the five-foot and thirty-foot zones
Days 1 to 10	Request your wildfire risk score and the explanation if the carrier has not sent it; file the appeal if the score misstates the house. Send the notice, the declarations page and the photographs to the broker who will market the risk
Days 10 to 45	Admitted market submissions go out with the mitigation documentation attached. Complete any mitigation that is cheap and visible: clear the five-foot zone, replace the vents, cut back the thirty-foot zone
Days 45 to 20	Admitted answers come back. Declinations are documented. Surplus lines submissions go to the wholesale markets that write the zone, and the FAIR Plan plus DIC combination is priced as the benchmark
Days 20 to 0	Bind the replacement with an effective date that meets the expiration. Confirm the mortgage servicer has the new declarations page so no force-placed policy is triggered
Any time	If a notice was late, your old policy runs 75 days from delivery. If the insurer ignores a moratorium or your appeal, file a Request for Assistance with the Department of Insurance

Owners who start on the day the notice arrives choose among options; owners who start two weeks before expiration accept what is left.

If the building is commercial

Commercial property policies run on a different statute. Under Insurance Code section 678.1 the insurer must give notice of non-renewal "at least 60 days, but not more than 120 days, in advance of the end of the policy period," must state the reasons, and if it is late the policy continues unchanged for 60 days (Ins. Code § 678.1(c), (d)). Since January 1, 2026, section 675.55, added by SB 547, extends a one-year post-emergency moratorium to commercial property as well, with large policies excluded unless the property is used for commercial residential or habitational purposes; the Gann Fire bulletin invoked it alongside the residential statute (Ins. Code § 675.55). Apartment owners should read our article on why California apartment building insurance went up for the habitational market specifically.

If you get stuck

The Department of Insurance's consumer line is 1-800-927-4357, and its complaint process is the Request for Assistance, filed online or on form CSD-001-P. That is the route for a notice that violates a moratorium, an insurer that will not provide or reconsider a risk score, or a carrier that ignores the 75-day rule.

Where we come in

We place non-renewed homes across the Sacramento foothills, the Sierra corridor and the rest of California in the sequence above: the admitted carriers still writing the ZIP code first, the wholesale and surplus lines markets when the admitted search is documented, and the FAIR Plan plus DIC only as the priced benchmark. Our high fire risk property page describes the markets and the mitigation documentation that moves them, and our homeowners insurance page covers the policy forms and limits. Start a quote with the property address and upload the non-renewal notice and the declarations page, and the 75 days start working for you instead of against you.

Sources and verification

Statutes, regulations and Department of Insurance documents cited above were checked on October 30, 2026: Insurance Code sections 678, 678.1, 675.1, 675.55 and 1763 (text as current through January 1, 2026, read on the FindLaw, Justia and Public.Law code mirrors); 10 CCR section 2644.9 (operative October 14, 2022); CDI Bulletins 2025-17, 2026-01 and 2026-6 (the moratoriums in force), 2024-8 and 2025-4 (the FAIR Plan assessment recoupment); 10 CCR section 2644.4.8; CDI press releases of November 14, 2019, December 13, 2024, and the alerts of July 13, August 3 and September 18, 2026; the California FAIR Plan's dwelling policy page and its 2026 policy form. The moratorium table reflects bulletins issued through October 30, 2026; new declarations add new ZIP codes, so check the Department's lookup for your address. This article describes the law in general terms and is not legal advice.