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Under Insurance Code §10081 and §10086, the insurer must make a written offer of earthquake coverage at issuance and at every renewal of a residential property policy. The applicant may accept or decline in writing, and silence is treated as a decline. There is no automatic add-on, no verbal-acceptance requirement, and no personal liability shifted to the producer when the insured does not respond.

The CEA, created by statute in 1996, is publicly managed but funded by participating private insurers. Most admitted residential property carriers in California satisfy the mandatory earthquake offer by issuing CEA policies rather than writing the risk on their own paper. It is not federal, not a commercial-only reinsurer, and not a surplus-lines market.

The California FAIR Plan, created at Insurance Code §10090 and following, is the basic-form property insurer of last resort. It is a syndicate of all admitted property insurers and provides narrow fire coverage to applicants who cannot obtain coverage in the voluntary market. The CEA handles earthquake, the Low Cost Auto Program covers liability for qualifying low-income drivers, and DMHC regulates HMOs.

Senate Bill 824, codified at §675.1, imposes a one-year moratorium on non-renewal or cancellation of residential property policies solely because the property is located in a ZIP code within or adjacent to the wildfire emergency area. The statute does not freeze rates, does not bar new sales, and does not delay paying claims; it only blocks location-based non-renewal.

Proposition 103, codified principally at §1861.05, established prior approval: an insurer must file a new rate and obtain the Commissioner's approval before using it on personal auto, homeowners, and most personal-lines policies. It is not a use-and-file system, the Commissioner does not unilaterally set rates, and the measure applies broadly to personal lines.

Insurance Code §1861.02(b)(2), enacted by Proposition 103, provides that the rate charged for a Good Driver Discount policy shall comply with subdivision (a) and shall be at least 20 percent below the rate the insured would otherwise have been charged for the same coverage. Every insurer must offer such a policy to an applicant who qualifies. (a) is wrong because the discount is a statutory entitlement, not an aspiration the Commissioner can excuse; (b) understates the margin, which is 20 percent and not 10; and (c) is wrong because the benchmark is the insurer's own otherwise-applicable filed rate, discounted by at least 20 percent, not a rate the Commissioner calculates.

Insurance Code §678 requires that a notice of non-renewal of a personal-lines residential property policy be mailed to the named insured at least 75 days before the expiration date and state the specific reason. The shorter periods listed are timeframes that apply to other actions (such as a mid-term cancellation of an auto policy for non-payment) but do not satisfy §678 for property non-renewal.

30 days, under §663(a)(2). The section previously cited here, §663.5, sets no notice period at all — it bars an insurer from declining to renew solely because of the insured's age or because a claim is pending. §661's list of grounds governs mid-term cancellation, not non-renewal. 75 days is the residential property period in §678(c)(1), and 60 and 90 days are not California auto periods at all.

10 CCR §2695.5(e)(1) requires acknowledgment of a claim within 15 calendar days; §2695.7(b) requires acceptance or denial within 40 calendar days of receiving proof of claim; and §2695.7(h) requires tender of payment within 30 calendar days of agreement on the amount due. Memorize 15/40/30 — these California-specific deadlines are tested repeatedly.

California Civil Code §3287 entitles a person to prejudgment interest at the legal rate on any liquidated sum wrongfully withheld. The legal rate is 10 percent per year, computed simple interest from the date the sum became due. Bad-faith damages are separate; statutory interest under §3287 attaches automatically without a tort suit.

Insurance Code §758 and §758.5, with the implementing rules at 10 CCR §2695.8(g) and §2695.85, give the claimant the right to choose the repair facility. The insurer may suggest a direct-repair shop and may explain advantages, but it cannot require its use. The claimant's choice controls; the lender does not select the shop in a first-party physical-damage claim.

Insurance Code §11629.7 and following limit the Low Cost Auto Program to qualifying low-income drivers. The income ceiling is 250 percent of the federal poverty level, the applicant must be at least 16 with a valid license and three years of continuous licensing and insurance, and program coverage is set at $10,000 per person and $20,000 per accident bodily injury with $3,000 property damage — the 10/20/3 limits, below the 30/60/15 financial-responsibility minimums.

Insurance Code §11580.2 requires that any rejection of UM, or any selection of UM limits below the bodily-injury liability limits (up to 30/60), be made in a signed writing meeting statutory form requirements. An oral rejection is ineffective. UM therefore remains in force at the default limits, and the insurer remains on the risk until a compliant written waiver is on file.

Six, not five. AB 451 (Stats. 2023, ch. 136, effective January 1, 2024) amended Insurance Code §1677 to require the exam in English, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean, and the same section adds Tagalog as of July 1, 2024. Study material written before 2024 — including earlier editions of this guide — lists only the first five; verify the current list with CDI. (a) understates it, (b) names languages CDI uses elsewhere but which §1677 does not require, and (c) names none of them.