The Smoke Damage Recovery Act, Explained

On September 15, 2026, Governor Gavin Newsom signed two bills on wildfire smoke damage into law: AB 1795, the Smoke Damage Recovery Act, and its companion, AB 1642. Both take effect on January 1, 2027. The Governor's office says the new testing and cleanup standards apply to future fires. This page explains what each law does in plain language, and what a homeowner with a standing smoke-damaged house should be doing now.

What AB 1795 does

AB 1795 was authored by Assemblymember Mike Gipson. As signed, it creates a presumption that smoke damage in a home within a wildfire impact zone was caused by that wildfire, so the insurer, not the homeowner, has to prove otherwise. It requires insurers to pay for the testing and sampling needed to restore a home to its pre-loss condition, and to cover cleanup and restoration to that condition. It bars insurers from ending Additional Living Expense benefits until a qualifying home is restored and safe to occupy. It also sets timelines for inspections and claim handling, keeps the policyholder's right to choose the restoration company, and adds training requirements for adjusters who handle smoke damage claims.

What AB 1642 does

AB 1642, authored by Assemblymember John Harabedian, works on the standards side. It directs the Department of Toxic Substances Control and the California Air Resources Board to set health-based protections for testing, cleaning and restoring homes contaminated with lead and asbestos from wildfire smoke, for homes within a fire's ZIP codes, and it requires guidance to help schools recover after a wildfire. The lead and asbestos standards are due by the end of 2028, with a deadline of the end of 2029 for other contaminants. Until they exist, there is no health-based cleanup standard written for wildfire residue in a home, which is why two qualified people can walk the same house and disagree about whether it is clean.

Why these laws exist

The reason these laws exist is a backlog that has not cleared. The California Department of Insurance estimates that more than 13,000 of roughly 40,000 claims arising from the January 2025 Palisades and Eaton fires involve smoke damage. Many are still open. In the Eaton footprint about 1,073 structures were damaged rather than destroyed, and in the Palisades roughly 1,000, and those standing homes are where the smoke claims are concentrated.

The legal picture

The legal picture has moved alongside the legislative one. A Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled that the California FAIR Plan's smoke damage policy was illegal under the state Insurance Code. That policy required damage to be visible to the unaided eye or detectable by the unaided nose, and excluded laboratory testing as a basis for a claim. Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara separately opened a market conduct examination of the FAIR Plan after more than 220 consumer complaints. In September 2026, Los Angeles County sued a major carrier over its handling of smoke damage claims. The Department of Insurance also convened a Smoke Claims and Remediation Task Force, whose March 2026 report recommended a tiered remediation system and certification for the firms and inspectors doing the work.

What to do now

Here is what all of that means for a homeowner today.

1. First, a standing house is a real loss. Smoke, ash and soot enter through the building envelope and settle where nobody cleans, which is attic insulation, ductwork, the tops of door frames, closets and drawers. Los Angeles County public health guidance for returning residents flags wildfire ash as potentially containing asbestos, arsenic and lead, and recommends professional cleaning where soot or odor persists after basic cleaning.
2. Second, and more urgently, documentation created before any cleanup is the thing these disputes turn on. Photograph every room wide, then close on visible deposits, on window sills, on the tops of door frames, and inside a closet. Photograph the air filter, because a loaded filter is dated physical evidence. Write down the date you first returned and what you observed and smelled. Keep every receipt, including hotel nights, air purifiers and cleaning supplies you bought yourself. Note any health symptom and when it started. If you have already cleaned, document what you did and when, rather than leaving a gap.
3. Third, be careful about who does your testing. Screening for regulated materials before anything is disturbed, and documenting a specific event for a claim, are two different purposes. Both are better served by an independent party than by the company that would also perform the cleanup. We do not test the jobs we bid, and we will point you at independent parties who do that work.
4. Fourth, no county or state grant program pays for smoke remediation in a standing home. We looked and it does not appear to exist. The funding mechanism is the insurance claim, which is exactly why the rules above are being fought over.

Our role

Our role in this is narrow and worth stating. Major League Response assesses and documents a property, performs the cleaning, and prepares an estimate for our own scope of work. We can bill your carrier directly for our services. We are not adjusters, we do not interpret policies, and nothing on this page is legal advice or a prediction about your claim. The FAIR Plan ruling, the market conduct examination and the county lawsuit stand on their own. Whether the new laws reach an open claim from the January 2025 fires depends on the claim and the policy, and that question belongs to your carrier, a public adjuster you hire, or an attorney.