LA wildfires

[RkFast]

14 minutes ago, Simon said:

 

I just had my longtime insurance company refuse the renewal on my camp that they have been insuring for decades because suddenly it is now "too far from the nearest fire station". 

 

IN my case they are using past accidents as a reason for nonrenwal. But here is the kicker...they were informed of them when they wrote the policy! So.....the acddients werent an issue when they took me on as a customer but are a problem now? Makes no sense. 

 

 

[muppy]

15 minutes ago, North Buffalo said:

Oceanside... going to watch Bills game down in San Diego on Sunday been down to that strip of Bars where Bills bar is forget the name

the official Billsbackers  bar  in san Diego is THE Local in Pacific Beach off of Mission  on Thomas Ave

Oceanside may have their own venue though

 

if you do travel to PB upstairs is the stadium type feel rowdy bunch. Downstairs has more individual tables and not as Loud

 

GO BILLS

 

football at such a tragic time as this ...Highly stressful and just horrific what is going on in LA

 

 

Edited 11 hours ago by muppy

[US Egg]

Just got my insurance renewal Tue. from same insurance co. of 5 years, homeowner/auto/umbrella, almost 20% increase. No claims in at least 10 years. Must of been the snowstorms. 

[LABILLBACKER]

10 minutes ago, muppy said:

the official Billsbackers  bar  in san Diego is THE Local in Pacific Beach off of Mission  on Thomas Ave

Oceanside may have their own venue though

 

if you do travel to PB upstairs is the stadium type feel rowdy bunch. Downstairs has more individual tables and not as Loud

 

GO BILLS

 

football at such a tragic time as this ...Highly stressful and just horrific what is going on in LA

 

 

One of if not the biggest Bills bars in California is in Santa Monica.  Last year at "Busbys" I was with at least 200+ people for the KC game. People were also outside in a large open courtyard. It's was amazing until the Bass miss. Now with the fire so close and power turned off for nearly 1 million people, it may not even be open??  You'd be surprised how many thousands of Bills fans are in LA.

[Simon]

27 minutes ago, RkFast said:

Makes no sense. 

 

It probably only makes sense in the loss ratio column of some hidden spreadsheet.

 

[Augie]

34 minutes ago, North Buffalo said:

Oceanside... going to watch Bills game down in San Diego on Sunday been down to that strip of Bars where Bills bar is forget the name

 

I was supposed to be in Oceanside in a few weeks. My son and his wife have a wedding there, and the wife was going to babysit for them so she invited me. Unfortunately, it was bad timing as she has to go direct to NYC from CA so I’m staying home with the dogs. 

 

I’ve heard no updates regarding the wedding and whether the venue is still standing. Prayers to your dad and all the people affected by this. 

[SectionC3]

1 hour ago, Augie said:

 

If you have a mortgage then insurance will be required to protect the lenders collateral. If you don’t have the property insured, they can and will force place insurance to protect themselves. That is never the cheapest way to go. 

I don’t think that’s always true,  especially if there’s no escrow involved.  I don’t recall ever furnishing my lender with proof of insurance (and I never had escrow involved and only had the mortgage for a couple of years). 

1 hour ago, Augie said:

1 hour ago, Augie said:

Edited 10 hours ago by SectionC3

[Fleezoid]

https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/nfl-announces-contingency-plan-for-vikings-rams-wild-card-playoff-game-amid-los-angeles-wildfires/

 

Didn't see this posted, but it looks like Arizona is the contingency plan. And I'm guessing Arizona is the place based on how things are looking now.

[North Buffalo]

41 minutes ago, LABILLBACKER said:

One of if not the biggest Bills bars in California is in Santa Monica.  Last year at "Busbys" I was with at least 200+ people for the KC game. People were also outside in a large open courtyard. It's was amazing until the Bass miss. Now with the fire so close and power turned off for nearly 1 million people, it may not even be open??  You'd be surprised how many thousands of Bills fans are in LA.

Been to both over the years forgot about Busbys

[HardyBoy]

2 hours ago, RkFast said:

 

Be careful, theres a big difference between being dropped and a nonrenewal. Unless the laws in FL and CA are different, in NY an insurance company cant just cancel coverage unless theres a failure to pay the premium or something like that. Otherwise, they just dont renew the policy and they must provide at least 60 days written notice of such. Technically with a nonrenewal youre still being "dropped" but youre not losing coverage tomorrow or anything like that. Thats often the implication with stories like that...like the one going around on X about the "90 year old couple that lost their insurance a month ago." There is no way that couple was doing nothing wrong and their insurance company knocked on their door last month unannounced and said "sorry, as of today no more insurance for you."

 

Heres the thing about it though, which I just learned....insruance companies would be happy to raise rates and keep you as a customer. But they cant. They have to ask the state regulators to raise rates and quite often they are told no by the state. So their choice is to either keep high risk customers and lose tons of money or just dont renew their policies. GEICO stopped writing policies in NYS completely for a time becuase there was no way they could do it and not lose their shirts, give nthe fact the state was making them keep their rates artificially low. Yes higher rates suck but at least you would still have insurance. 

 

Dont get me wrong, they are still greedy bastards. Its hard to hear the insurance companies cry about empty pockets and tell you "sorry, we cant cover your auto insurance anymore becuase you had one too many $750 glass claims", but then see their massive sports sponsorships and commercials every ten seconds. I looked it up...the top insruance companies all spend over $1 BILLION a year on marketing and advertising. Im going through this right now, actually! Hence, this rant.  Im sure this situation is more complex but this is at least my undersanding of it. 

 

It really is a super highly nuanced situation...another huge issue is developers...we are building and living in places that are not long term viable and then people are using insurance to mitigate that risk (I am not blaming victims here).

 

The problem, this isn't just an issue with people building properties on the coasts, in places that get regular wildfires/wilderness areas anymore.

 

People are losing coverage all over the country because places are at higher risk of major storms and such now.

 

But... I'm gonna bring it back to another issue...things are way more expensive to fix now than before too...and I don't mean like inflation and not enough skilled labor, which is an issue. The main issue is we are building houses that are way too big and cars that are way too expensive.

 

The reason you can't find a $150k house or a $15k car isn't because cost of materials is so high...it's because housing developers and car companies are not building houses and cars that cost that much. Short term profit maximization at the expense of long term sustainability.

 

Plus you add in private equity buying up all the existing houses and turning them into rentals and now the price of existing houses are crazy expensive and not just new constructions because the houses are so crazy big.

 

I moved away from Ft Lauderdale in 2020 in large part because I was tired of the stress of hurricanes, our families are in NYS and we weren't flying because of covid, so we wouldn't see family for a really long time...but one of the absolute key reasons was because I was worried they would stop giving 30 year mortgages down there (which will happen at some point) and we would be stuck.

Edited 10 hours ago by HardyBoy

[26TrapDraw]

16 hours ago, CA OC Bills Fan said:

I actually had meant to content about air quality. For those who don't see it you maybe can't imagine how bad it gets. With fires 50 miles away it is very noticeable. Youth sports get canceled. When not bad enough for canceling, when my son was a teenager he'd get asthma attacks if he tried playing during fires.

Yep in the last few years here in Cali air quality has been shyt during fires and there’s been a ton.

[North Buffalo]

Just arrived at a LAX at one point my side of the plane face toward Santa Monica... just a thick wall of smoke in over there...

[Augie]

43 minutes ago, SectionC3 said:

I don’t think that’s always true,  especially if there’s no escrow involved.  I don’t recall ever furnishing my lender with proof of insurance (and I never had escrow involved and only had the mortgage for a couple of years). 

 

Regardless of whether you escrow for taxes and insurance, the lender is noted as the mortgagee at closing. They are notified by the insurance company if coverage lapses for any reason. Without insurance on the collateral, the lender is exposed to enormous losses that nobody in their right mind would find acceptable. I mean, think about it. Nobody is going to lend me hundreds of thousands of dollars unsecured, but without insurance that’s effectively what they would be doing. 

 

Some people who pay cash or retire/pay off their mortgage (as we are about to do) elect to “self-insure”, a/k/a roll the dice and take their chances. I sleep better knowing we are properly insured. 

[Simon]

1 minute ago, North Buffalo said:

Just arrived at a LAX at one point my side of the plane face toward Santa Monica... just a thick wall of smoke in over there...

 

This is probably an inappropriate place for a Cheech and Chong joke.

Stay safe all, but don't let material losses take away your joy. 💝

[Special K]

4 hours ago, RkFast said:

 

Be careful, theres a big difference between being dropped and a nonrenewal. Unless the laws in FL and CA are different, in NY an insurance company cant just cancel coverage unless theres a failure to pay the premium or something like that. Otherwise, they just dont renew the policy and they must provide at least 60 days written notice of such. Technically with a nonrenewal youre still being "dropped" but youre not losing coverage tomorrow or anything like that. Thats often the implication with stories like that...like the one going around on X about the "90 year old couple that lost their insurance a month ago." There is no way that couple was doing nothing wrong and their insurance company knocked on their door last month unannounced and said "sorry, as of today no more insurance for you."

 

Heres the thing about it though, which I just learned....insruance companies would be happy to raise rates and keep you as a customer. But they cant. They have to ask the state regulators to raise rates and quite often they are told no by the state. So their choice is to either keep high risk customers and lose tons of money or just dont renew their policies. GEICO stopped writing policies in NYS completely for a time becuase there was no way they could do it and not lose their shirts, give nthe fact the state was making them keep their rates artificially low. Yes higher rates suck but at least you would still have insurance. 

 

Dont get me wrong, they are still greedy bastards. Its hard to hear the insurance companies cry about empty pockets and tell you "sorry, we cant cover your auto insurance anymore becuase you had one too many $750 glass claims", but then see their massive sports sponsorships and commercials every ten seconds. I looked it up...the top insruance companies all spend over $1 BILLION a year on marketing and advertising. Im going through this right now, actually! Hence, this rant.  Im sure this situation is more complex but this is at least my undersanding of it. 

 

I am talking about non-renewal, but not renewing someone's policy when they never missed a payment and in some cases never filed a claim is equivalent to dropping them, IMO. I understand there is a difference, but its still a rotten practice.

[WotAGuy]

Lakers postponed their game tonight. Wonder how long the NFL can wait before making a decision; I’m sure they are hoping to keep it in LA, but the situation is still very fluid, although it sounds like they are getting lots of firefighting help from nearby states and the military. 

[LABILLBACKER]

Now I'm hearing from family- friends that have power that the Mt Wilson observatory and all the TV antennas are at risk.

[nedboy7]

Home Insurance, Health Insurance.  America is becoming disturbing. 

[machine gun kelly]

First, I hope Californians stay safe as that smoke is toxic.  If I was making the call, I’d give the teams fans time to reroute plans just call it’s AZ.  God knows we had to reroute two regular season games, but I understand the playoffs are different. Not at the expense of their fans, staff, players and coaches.  It’s even worse as it’s an open air stadium on the sides so the smoke will get in there.

[WotAGuy]

2 minutes ago, machine gun kelly said:

First, I hope Californians stay safe as that smoke is toxic.  If I was making the call, I’d give the teams fans time to reroute plans just call it’s AZ.  God knows we had to reroute two regular season games, but I understand the playoffs are different. Not at the expense of their fans, staff, players and coaches.  It’s even worse as it’s an open air stadium on the sides so the smoke will get in there.

And like with blizzards in Buffalo where the games have been moved due to logistical/emergency response limitations, the game will likely be moved out of LA due to more pressing priorities for emergency response and police resources.