LOS ANGELES—California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara “provisionally” approved State Farm General’s request for an emergency 22 percent increase in its homeowners insurance rate on March 14—but only if the company can justify it with data in a public hearing scheduled for next month.
Lara first turned down a rate hike last month, after finding that the insurer had failed to provide sufficient evidence that it needed the increase immediately, as well as hikes of 38 percent for rental dwellings and 15 percent for renters and condo owners. But he gave the company an opportunity to provide more evidence to justify the emergency request resulting from the Los Angeles-area Eaton and Palisades fires that burned nearly 60,000 acres, destroyed more than 16,000 structures and resulted in the deaths of 29 people in January….