The Overview

If your home survived a California wildfire but filled with smoke, your insurer now has to pay for testing and can't cut off your living expenses until the property is safe to return to. California's Smoke Damage Recovery Act, Assembly Bill 1795, became law when Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed it Sept. 15. More than 13,000 smoke-damage claims were filed after the January 2025 fires, and insurers handled them inconsistently, while testing in one study found dangerous levels of asbestos or lead in six out of 10 smoke-damaged homes. ​

What the Law Does

The law creates a rebuttable presumption: if smoke, ash, soot, char, or combustion byproducts are present in a surviving home inside a wildfire impact zone, the damage is presumed to have come from that wildfire. Under the law, insurers must cover the cost of sampling and testing needed to restore a smoke-damaged residential property to its preloss condition and clear it for human occupancy, and they cannot end additional living expense coverage for such claims in the wildfire impact zone until the property is restored and cleared.

An insurer that inspects a smoke-damaged property must do so within 30 calendar days of receiving the claim or being granted access, pay actual cash value for damaged personal property within 30 days of inspection, and pay the undisputed replacement cost for the home within 30 days of completed restoration. The California Department of Insurance must develop training and certification programs for adjusters handling smoke-damage claims, and insurers must train their adjusters accordingly. The law's provisions take effect only if Assembly Bill 1642 of the 2025-26 session is also enacted.

Legislative Status

Asm. Mike Gipson (D) sponsored the bill as its sole lead author. Assembly committees passed it 5-1, 14-2, and 11-4; the full Assembly passed it 56-7 on June 8; a Senate committee passed it 5-1 on June 24; the Senate passed it 28-10 on Aug. 31; and the Assembly concurred in Senate amendments 58-7 the same day.

Gipson said in a statement reported by ABC10: "AB 1795 puts the health and well-being of fire survivors first by requiring insurance companies to follow the science and provide Californians with the protections they deserve." California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara, a sponsor of the bill, said in a Department of Insurance release: "I am dedicated to swift passage of AB 1795, the Smoke Damage Recovery Act, to pave the way for a better process that insurance policyholders can rely upon."

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