As is typical after a wildfire, insurers are requiring survivors to submit detailed “personal property inventories” listing the property they lost in the Maui Wildfire before paying Lahaina homeowners the limits of their personal property coverage. Preparing the inventories can take hours or even days. Not surprisingly, many survivors find it traumatic to list all the items lost in the fire. Some find it impossible.
Maui Attorney Lance D. Collins has written Hawai`i Insurance Commissioner Gordon Ito call to provide relief to Maui residents. He is asking that Ito call upon property insurance companies to pay out 100% of coverage limits for loss of contents or personal property without requiring survivors to submit an itemized list or other proof of what they lost. According to Lance D. Collins, such paperwork “Is a burden the people of Lahaina should not be required to bear while the community continues to attempt to recover.” Collins notes that insurance commissioners in other jurisdictions have taken similar actions in the wake of wildfires, and the Hawwai`i commissioner should do so as well.
Lance D. Collins is a Maui lawyer who, along with Honolulu lawyer Harrison Kiehm, leads the Malama Law Group. The Malama Law Group represents property owners and others who lost property in the Maui Wildfire.