Guides
Owning a home in a wildfire area: keeping your coverage
Fire is covered. Staying insured is the hard part. What to do before renewal, what a nonrenewal leaves you with, and how FAIR Plans and surplus lines fit.
If you own a home near wildland, your policy covers fire, and the problem is keeping that policy. Insurers score every address for wildfire risk, and a home that scores badly can be priced up, put on conditions or dropped. The practical response has three parts: reduce what the score sees, insure the house for what it would cost to rebuild, and know your fallback before a nonrenewal notice arrives.
This guide is the owner's overview. The detail on each step sits in neighboring guides, linked as we go.
Three separate problems
Owners in fire country tend to blur three issues that need different fixes.
Availability. Whether any admitted insurer will write or renew your house. This is driven by the insurer's wildfire model and appetite for your area, not only by your own conduct.
Price. What the policy costs if you can get one. Wildfire tiers, reinsurance costs and a single catastrophic season all push rates.
Adequacy. Whether the policy you have would rebuild the house. Many wildfire victims have found that the limit was set too low, not that the policy denied the fire. The Colorado Division of Insurance's April 2022 analysis of the 2021 Marshall Fire found that between 36% and 67% of 951 total-loss homes were underinsured, depending on the cost per square foot assumed.
The scale of the pressure is visible in the residual market. The California FAIR Plan, the state's insurer of last resort, reported 696,562 policies in June 2026, up 157% since September 2022 (California FAIR Plan). Aon put the insured loss from the January 2025 Los Angeles fires at $41 billion (Aon), and Munich Re and Swiss Re estimated about $40 billion, the largest insured wildfire loss on record by their counts. Other states' rules differ; use home insurance rules by state.
While you still have a standard policy
- Ask for your wildfire score and what drives it. California requires insurers that use one to give it to you in writing, and Colorado has required the same kind of notice since July 1, 2026. wildfire risk scores and how insurers use them explains how to read it and appeal it.
- Do the work insurers credit, and document it. Vegetation management, ember-resistant vents, a Class A roof, enclosed eaves and a cleared zone next to the house are the usual list. Keep dated photographs, invoices and any inspector's report. See defensible space and wildfire insurance and home hardening for wildfire and insurance discounts. In California, a regulation requires insurers that rate by wildfire risk to give credit for listed actions (10 CCR 2644.9), so a completed upgrade should show up in your premium or your score.
- Insure to value. Run the home replacement cost estimator or ask your insurer for its rebuilding estimate and the inputs behind it. Ask about extended replacement cost and about ordinance or law coverage coverage, which pays for code upgrades.
- Check your living-expense limit. After a total loss, rebuilding can take years. Find your Coverage D limit, and whether your policy sets a time cap. loss of use and additional living expenses covers both.
- Build the inventory now. A room-by-room video and a spreadsheet stored off-site save weeks of argument later. The home inventory builder helps.
- Weigh small claims carefully. A claim can feed your claims history, and in a market that is already deciding whether to keep you, a small one has a cost. See will a claim raise your homeowners premium?.
- Work with someone who can reach more than one company. An independent agent who writes in your county will know which admitted insurers are accepting fire-exposed homes this year. A captive agent can only offer one company's decision.
If your insurer drops you
Start with the notice. The nonrenewal letter states the reason and the date, and your state sets a minimum notice period. Use nonrenewal vs cancellation of homeowners insurance: your rights to see what the letter means and nonrenewal action plan for a dated checklist.
California moratoriums
California has a specific protection, but it is narrower than many owners assume. Under Insurance Code 675.1(b), an insurer may not cancel or refuse to renew a residential policy in a ZIP code within or adjacent to a declared wildfire's perimeter, for one year after the governor declares a state of emergency, based solely on the property's being in an area where a wildfire occurred. The Commissioner lists the covered ZIP codes in a bulletin. Insurers may still act for other lawful reasons such as nonpayment, fraud or a material change in the risk beyond the fire damage. Owners elsewhere in fire country get no such shield. See California's Sustainable Insurance Strategy for the other state measures.
Where to look next
| Option | What it is | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| Another admitted insurer | A regular homeowners policy from a company regulated for rates and forms | Wildfire score, roof and vegetation rules, deductible; ask each company when its decision is made |
| FAIR Plan | A state-run plan of last resort. California's covers the dwelling up to $3 million; Colorado's covers up to $750,000 | Usually limited to fire and a few related perils; see below |
| Surplus lines | A non-admitted carrier with freer forms and rates | No state rate review and, in many states, no guaranty fund |
| Difference in conditions policy | A companion policy that fills in perils and liability the FAIR Plan leaves out | Pairing must be complete; gaps in water, theft and liability |
FAIR Plan coverage. California's FAIR Plan currently offers a limited fire policy, and the Department of Insurance says it is pursuing a comprehensive residential option that would add water damage, liability, theft and additional living expenses (California Department of Insurance). Until that exists, buyers who want broader coverage usually pair it with a Difference in conditions (DIC) policy policy. Details of the plan are in The California FAIR Plan explained and the wider category in FAIR Plans explained.
Plan assessments. FAIR Plan losses can come back to other policyholders. After the Los Angeles fires, the Commissioner approved a $1 billion assessment of member insurers on February 11, 2025, and insurers could ask to recoup half of it through a temporary fee on policyholders.
Surplus lines. Non-admitted insurers can sometimes write houses admitted insurers have declined, at prices and terms the state does not review. Check the carrier's financial strength rating and ask whether a guaranty fund would apply if it failed. See surplus lines home insurance when standard carriers say no.
Your lender. If the house is mortgaged, the lender requires continuous coverage. If a policy lapses, the lender can buy force-placed (lender-placed) insurance explained and bill you. Send the lender the new declarations page well before the old policy ends.
The honest argument about all this
Insurers say a house at the end of a canyon road, surrounded by fuel, cannot be priced at the same level as one in town without causing everyone else to subsidize it, and that models rooted in actual fire behavior are a better guide than ZIP code averages. Consumer advocates say models can be opaque, can penalize owners for neighborhood conditions they cannot change, and can push whole communities into plans that offer less coverage. Both statements can be true, and state rules on disclosure and mitigation credits are a response to the second. For an individual owner, the useful point is that mitigation and documentation are in your hands, while the model's cutoff is not.
After a fire
Flood follows fire. Burn scars shed water fast, and a standard homeowners policy excludes flood and mudflow. NFIP policies bought for flooding that originates on federal land and is made worse by post-wildfire conditions can take effect in one day instead of 30 if bought on or before the fire containment date or within 60 days after it, according to FEMA's flood insurance manual. For living costs during an evacuation, the ISO form's civil authority provision pays for up to two weeks and requires damage to neighboring premises. California Insurance Code 2060(c) provides at least two weeks of living-expense coverage, with extensions for good cause, when a state of emergency and a civil authority order restrict access to a home. rebuilding after a wildfire: the insurance claim covers the claims side.
Key takeaways
- A standard homeowners policy covers wildfire as fire. The hard problems are keeping coverage, its price and whether the limit would rebuild the house.
- Ask for your wildfire score, complete the mitigation insurers credit, and keep dated records.
- Raise or confirm the dwelling limit, ordinance-or-law coverage and living-expense limit before a fire, not after.
- California's moratorium protects ZIP codes in or next to a declared fire perimeter for one year. It is not a general shield against nonrenewal.
- If you land in a FAIR Plan, find out what it leaves out and fill the gaps with a companion policy.