California will require insurers to reward consumers for wildfire mitigations
California will require insurers to reward consumers for wildfire mitigations

(The Center Square) – California homeowners and businesses that take steps to protect their properties from wildfires will soon pay lower insurance rates under a new, first-in-the-nation framework introduced by the state’s insurance commissioner. The new regulation, announced by California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara, requires…
California to require insurance discounts for property owners who reduce wildfire risk
California to require insurance discounts for property owners who reduce wildfire risk

California will become the first state in the nation to require insurance premium discounts for owners of homes and businesses that are made safer from wildfires. New rules mandate that insurance companies reward consumers who take wildfire safety and mitigation actions under the state’s Safer…
UP and WRAP partners testify before Congress on insurance challenges and progress in wildfire-prone states
UP and WRAP partners testify before Congress on insurance challenges and progress in wildfire-prone states

On September 22, 2022, in invited testimony before the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services, Subcommittee on Housing, Community Development and Insurance, Executive Director Amy Bach presented consumer viewpoints and initiatives that are underway to restore affordable insurance options for property owners in wildfire-prone regions.…
CDI Regulations Moving Forward
CDI Regulations Moving Forward

United Policyholders is pleased to share the news that the California Department of Insurance has now announced its intention to formally move forward with its proposed “Mitigation in Rating Plans and Wildfire Risk Models” regulations.  Once formally adopted, the regulations will legally require insurers to…
Can AI Predict If Your House Is Going To Burn To The Ground?
Can AI Predict If Your House Is Going To Burn To The Ground?

As summer fire season looms in California, Zesty.ai is using machine learning to help insurers and homeowners to make realistic risk assessments—and reduce damage to homes and property. Standing on the outskirts of Oakland, California, Attila Toth takes in the nearby forested hills. The CEO…
Paradise rolls out new wildfire prevention standards available to all California homes
Paradise rolls out new wildfire prevention standards available to all California homes

A Paradise home received the state’s first Wildfire Prepared Home designation, kicking off a new program meant to reduce the damage from wildfires. The newly-constructed home is tucked in the burn scar of the Camp Fire, the deadliest wildfire in California’s history, on a road…
Paradise home becomes first in the U.S. to be designated a ‘wildfire-prepared home’
Paradise home becomes first in the U.S. to be designated a ‘wildfire-prepared home’

The designation is certified by the Insurance Institute for Home and Business Safety and provides proof that a homeowner has taken scientifically proven steps to mitigate risk for total loss in a fire. PARADISE, Calif. —As the town of Paradise continues the long rebuilding process…
Misunderstood California law could protect your home’s fire insurance. How does it work?
Misunderstood California law could protect your home’s fire insurance. How does it work?

Your insurance company may be required to maintain your fire coverage if you live in a high-risk area in California — but the law that protects your home can be misinterpreted, as was the case for a Shasta Valley resident after she received a premature…
The dilemma of property insurance on the Hill
The dilemma of property insurance on the Hill

The California Department of Insurance (CDI) is rolling out new regulations mandating that insurers in the state offer discounts to policyholders who undertake fire hazard mitigation and structure “hardening.” The rules are intended to make decisions about rate and risk more transparent and more tuned…
California’s wildfire building codes make newer homes less likely to burn
California’s wildfire building codes make newer homes less likely to burn

In the mid-1980s, Jim and Ann Pesout fell in love with 10 acres of forest in Northern California’s Calaveras County. They bought the land and started building a house. “It took us two years. We physically pounded nails and built the house,” Ann said. “Our…
Guest Blog: Fire Resistant Building Materials for New Home Construction
Guest Blog: Fire Resistant Building Materials for New Home Construction

With the climate crisis in full effect, it appears that wildfires are on the rise. Especially in states like California, Colorado, Texas, Arizona, Montana, and others, wildfires are a huge issue. Every year there are multiple dangerous outbreaks of fire that spread across countries threatening…
Regulators unveil wildfire safety plan. Will it fix rural California’s insurance crisis?
Regulators unveil wildfire safety plan. Will it fix rural California’s insurance crisis?

State regulators rolled out a “Safer from Wildfire” program Monday to encourage rural residents and business owners to gird their properties as a way of fixing the insurance crisis that’s plagued the Sierra foothills and other fire-prone areas of California the past few years. The…
Wildfire risk: Marin homeowners face increasing insurance woes
Wildfire risk: Marin homeowners face increasing insurance woes

Marin homeowners are seeing an increase in insurance policy rates and dropped policies in the pandemic era due to wildfire risk. Statewide, a new report from the California Department of Insurance released last month found the number of California homeowners whose policies were not renewed…
The Wildfire List: 13 Home Improvement Steps to Harden Your Home
The Wildfire List: 13 Home Improvement Steps to Harden Your Home

After a year of work, our WRAP working group issued a list of 13 home improvement steps that we believe should be the official standards for a wildfire prepared home. Here are the 13 recommendations from an array of experts in residential wildfire risk reduction.…
Insurance Commissioner Lara Protects Additional California Wildfire Survivors from Insurance Non-Renewals
Insurance Commissioner Lara Protects Additional California Wildfire Survivors from Insurance Non-Renewals

November 10, 2021 – SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara today ordered insurance companies to preserve 209,881 residential property insurance policies held by wildfire survivors included in an October 22 emergency declaration, bringing the total statewide to 618,700 policyholders across 31 counties who have temporary protection from…
The shrubs across the street nearly cost him his home insurance
The shrubs across the street nearly cost him his home insurance

It’s not yet common, but in high-risk fire neighborhoods, Berkeley Hills residents may find that keeping their home insurance depends on how well their neighbors prune their property. At the end of August, wildfire prevention advocate Dan Grassetti opened a letter from Allstate, his home’s…
Some California homeowners in fire-prone areas face steep insurance increase
Some California homeowners in fire-prone areas face steep insurance increase

SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — Across the state, homeowners are preparing for what could be another long wildfire season. Last year broke records for fires in the state, with more than four million acres burned, and this year has already seen hundreds more fires than the…
Here’s how California homeowners are trying to save their fire insurance
Here’s how California homeowners are trying to save their fire insurance

With insurers canceling coverage and raising rates, should fire-proofing homes count? Susan Hassett did everything she could to convince the insurance companies her Yolo County ranch could survive a wildfire. After Allstate told the retired firefighter in 2017 that the devastating blazes across the state…