After the Gann Fire, California’s Commercial Property Moratorium Is Live. What Sacramento-Area Contractors and Owners Should Check

Wildfire season in California has a second calendar now: the insurance calendar. After Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency for Calaveras County on August 6, 2026 for the Gann Fire, Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara’s office did what statute requires — it mapped the fire perimeter with CAL FIRE and CalOES, named the adjoining ZIP codes, and told insurers to pause wildfire-driven cancellations and non-renewals for a year. The California Department of Insurance press release of August 14, 2026 says that bulletin covers more than 64,000 residential policyholders across Calaveras, San Joaquin, Amador, Tuolumne, and Stanislaus counties. The new twist is commercial: for the first time under Senate Bill 547, the Business Insurance Protection Act, certain commercial property policies in those same areas get the same one-year shield.

Lions & Coventry Insurance Services is an independent brokerage at 7816 Uplands Way, Ste C in Citrus Heights. We place construction insurance and commercial property insurance for owners and contractors from Sacramento and Loomis out toward the foothills and Central Valley edge. This is a field note on a live CDI bulletin, not legal advice and not a substitute for the Commissioner’s ZIP list or counsel.

What the bulletin actually does

Under Insurance Code section 675.1 (the 2018 residential moratorium), and section 675.55 (added by SB 547, effective January 1, 2026), insurers generally may not cancel or refuse to renew covered property policies in listed ZIP codes for one year after the emergency declaration based solely on wildfire location. CDI’s consumer page lists the Gann Fire under 2026 wildfires with the August 6 declaration. Trade summaries of Bulletin 2026-6 describe 22 ZIP codes in and around the perimeter. Confirm your address against the Commissioner’s bulletin and ZIP list — do not rely on a newspaper map or a neighbor’s rumor.

CDI’s release is explicit about the commercial expansion: policies for homeowners associations, apartment complexes, senior living facilities, and other specified real property used primarily for residential or habitational purposes are included in those same perimeters and adjoining ZIP codes. That is the first live application of SB 547’s commercial protection after a declared wildfire emergency that the Department highlighted in the Gann Fire release. Residential total-loss claims still have longer separate protections (up to 24 months under existing law, per CDI).

What it is not

A moratorium is a pause button, not a free policy and not a rate freeze. Premiums can still move through normal prior-approval filings. Builders risk — course-of-construction coverage while a structure is incomplete — is a different product from the habitational commercial property policies SB 547 targets; if you are mid-build or mid-rebuild, keep reading your specimen form and lender requirements on builders risk separately. Statutes also leave carve-outs (for example, willful or grossly negligent acts that materially increase risk, unrelated losses that make the risk ineligible, or physical changes that render the property uninsurable). Read the bulletin and the code; do not assume every commercial line is covered.

A recent post on this site covered Zone 0 — the five-foot ember-resistant band for new construction. That is a Board of Forestry fire-safety floor. Today’s bulletin is about whether the carrier can walk away from a renewal because the ZIP code sat next to a declared fire. Related, not identical.

Checklist for Sacramento–Loomis contractors and multifamily owners

• If you own, manage, or insure an HOA, apartment, multifamily, student housing, or senior-living property in a listed Gann Fire ZIP, pull the renewal notice and the declaration date. Notices issued for wildfire risk on or after August 6 for properties in those ZIPs should be challenged against the bulletin; CDI directs insurers to offer rescission and reinstatement or renewal in those cases.
• If you are a GC or specialty trade bidding repair, rebuild, or habitational work east of Sacramento toward Calaveras, Amador, or the San Joaquin corridor, align Sacramento construction insurance certificates — general liability, workers compensation, and any course-of-construction — with the entity names on the subcontract and the owner’s lender wording. The moratorium protects certain property policies; it does not replace your liability and payroll coverage.
• Keep a paper trail: emergency declaration date, ZIP confirmation from CDI, cancellation or non-renewal letter, and your policy number. CDI’s consumer line is 800-927-4357 if a carrier refuses to honor a listed ZIP.
• After the year runs, underwriting returns to normal. Defensible space, mitigation documentation, and honest occupancy details still decide whether the next renewal is smooth or a scramble into surplus lines or the FAIR Plan plus a wrap.

Talk through the bulletin before the next renewal

If your multifamily schedule, HOA, or foothill job sits near the Gann Fire ZIP list — or you simply want a clean read of commercial property versus builders risk before the next bid — call Lions & Coventry at (916) 967-7715. Office: 7816 Uplands Way, Ste C, Citrus Heights, CA 95610. License #0G22084. Monday–Friday 9am–5pm. Send the address, policy type, renewal date, and any cancellation letter. Or use our contact form. This is not legal advice. It is how local owners and contractors stay oriented when the insurance calendar moves as fast as the fire calendar.