Residential property insurance: tree fire risks.

Assembly Member Hoover's residential property insurance proposal creates a new exemption process for California homeowners seeking to remove fire-hazardous trees, shifting oversight from local authorities to state-level verification between insurers and fire officials.

The legislation establishes a two-step verification system for tree removal on insured residential properties. Under the proposed framework, if an insurance company identifies a tree as posing a fire risk and the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection confirms that assessment, the property owner becomes exempt from state and local regulations, fees, and penalties typically associated with tree removal. This changes the current system, which requires property owners in wildfire-prone areas to independently maintain defensible space and navigate local permitting requirements for vegetation management.

The measure redistributes regulatory responsibilities among key stakeholders. Insurance companies would take on new duties in formally identifying hazardous trees, while the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection would develop confirmation protocols to validate these assessments. Local governments would see reduced oversight of tree removal within their jurisdictions as the process moves to state-level administration. Property owners would interface primarily with their insurers and state fire officials rather than local permitting authorities when addressing tree-related fire risks.