A large chunk of the cost of rebuilding after the Los Angeles wildfires is likely to shift to insurance customers throughout the state, under a little-noticed rule change last year by California’s insurance regulator.

Weiss Ratings issued a report alleging that Farmers Insurance and other California insurers reject nearly half of claims from state homeowners. Insurers have disputed the findings.

California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara said new regulations will keep homeowners insured. Some of the new efforts give insurance companies more leeway in raising rates, while allowing them to use computer modeling to forecast risk and to incorporate their own “reinsurance” costs from backup providers in setting future premiums.

Los Angeles is experiencing a severe homeowners insurance crisis, with over 800,000 homes currently lacking coverage. While insurance companies are being criticized for the shortage of policies, the root cause may be a 1988 California law known as Proposition 103.