It means California property owners will likely be billed from their private insurers to help compensate the FAIR Plan.

The California FAIR Plan, the state's insurer of last resort, has received approval to assess its member carriers $1 billion to help pay its L.A. fire losses -- with consumers possibly on hook for nearly half under new state policy.

Bay Area homeowners will likely be on the hook for helping bail out California’s insurer of last resort to the tune of $1 billion after it ran out of money to pay claims from the devastating Los Angeles wildfires.

California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara has requested $1 billion in additional funds from the commission's member insurers to shore up the state-backed FAIR Plan after wildfires ravaged swathes of land in and around Los Angeles last month.

The California FAIR Plan does not have enough money to weather the impact of the record-breaking Los Angeles wildfires on its own. Instead, it will turn to private insurers for help — triggering a process where insured California homeowners across the state will end up paying part of the bill.

In the wake of the Los Angeles fires, the California FAIR Plan, the state's property insurer of last resort, requested approval for $1 billion from the California insurance commissioner, which he approved the same day. That money will be assessed from all home insurers operating in the state.

California’s insurer of last resort reported that claims now are high enough to trigger “reinsurance” payments from back-up providers.

After saying it would run out of funds by March, California’s last-resort fire insurance provider will impose a special charge of $1 billion on homeowners and insurance companies, the first such move in more than three decades.

That’s enough to kick the plan’s strained finances further into crisis mode, increasing the chances that homeowners statewide will see insurance costs rise.