Homeowner Wildfire Exclusion Michael J Derrig Derrig asked 6 months ago
Homeowner Wildfire Exclusion

I recently found out that Progressive is not going to renew my CA homeowners insurance policy. This is after last year they requested pictures documenting the house met their defensible space requirements, which they responded in an e-mail that the photos demonstrated the requirements were met and they would renew the policy. In addition the house is four years old and was built to the CA wildfire codes, has an indoor sprinkler system, is a one minute response time from an ISO 3 full time fire dept., has a fire hydrant across the street, is surrounded by water on three sides (peninsula), has a golf course nearby, is in a Firewise community, etc. I worked for the US Forest Service for 30 years, including at times being involved in wildfire prevention and suppression and am convinced that there is an extremely low risk of the house burning down in a wildfire. My question is does any insurance provider offer a wildfire exclusion? The definition in my mind would define a wildfire as originating off the property, or some other criteria. I’m willing to roll the dice on this and I’m sure many others are too. Thanks

1 Answers
United Policyholders Staff answered 4 months ago
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Dear Michael,

Thank you for reaching out and we apologize for the delay in responding to you.

This is California Insurance Code Section 2070. It basically says that “All fire policies on subject matter in California shall be on the standard form, and, except as provided by this article shall not contain additions thereto.”

That means, to insure against fire, an insurer must provide coverage in the same way the standard fire form provides coverage, which means, you can’t exclude a particular type of fire.

We are sorry this isn’t the answer you were hoping for. Please use the information and resources on our website to look for alternatives in California.

Best of luck,

Team UP