Quake Insurance

I don’t think people should be forced to sue their insurance companies to obtain the benefits that their homeowners policies clearly spell out.

The laws governing insurance companies have to be changed to protect the homeowners.

Require that they add a notice at the bottom of the policy, in large print: Warning: You may have to sue for the benefits that you thought were guaranteed in this contract and / or you may have to wait three years or longer for a settlement of your claim that may never be enough to totally repair your damaged home.

Had such a warning been added, as it should have been, 15 years ago to our policy with 20th Century Insurance, then my now-deceased husband and I would have paid our premium dollars not to an insurance company but into a mutual fund.

I would be back in my repaired earthquake-damaged home, not sitting in a rental house three years and four months later, still trying to settle my claim.

I do not have an attorney. I have not filed a suit against my insurance company, nor have I threatened to. I was naive. I thought that since I had a signed contract that clearly spelled out what I was entitled to, that the insurance company, in utmost good faith, would honor that contract.

WANDA M. RAYNARD

Northridge