Wildfire Mitigate Your Property to Keep Your Homeowners Insurance

Wildfire Mitigate Your Property to Keep Your Homeowners Insurance

By Cork Rech, CCCFPD CWPP Implementation Committee

We hope you were able to tune in for last month’s informational Zoom presentation by Lisa Hughes, Colorado Liaison, United Policyholders. Lisa had lots of great advice on what to do if you are “dropped” by your insurance company and how to shop for a new insurer within the 60-day window before you are totally uninsured. On June 18, United Policyholders also hosted an in-depth program on the subject: Home Insurance Shopping Help Webinar. If you missed this, find the recorded webinar at United Policyholders (www.uphelp.org) under the EVENTS tab.

Both presentations offered important updates on the state of homeowners insurance in Colorado. Several of the major insurance companies are no longer offering new policies to Colorado residents in the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI). The “lucky” folks aren’t being dropped but are seeing the cost of their annual premiums go up by 40-60%. Some CCC residents have been dropped by their long-time insurers for no apparent reason. Why, suddenly, are insurance companies declining to renew policies? By listening to the United Policyholders presentations and interviewing several insurance agents and brokers, we have come up with an answer. 

“Eye in the Sky” Risk Evaluations

Most insurance underwriters utilize drone or satellite imagery to determine if adequate fire mitigation has occurred on residential properties in the WUI. Gone are the days when your agent or an adjuster comes to personally evaluate your home for insurability. The new technology being used by many in the insurance industry is a service from ZestyAI, called Z-FIRE.

From their website:

Before Z-FIRE™

Wildfire risk was assessed at the regional level, ignoring property specific factors and risk mitigation.

With Z-FIRE™

Wildfire risk is assessed at the property-level, providing increased transparency and predictive power.

And:

“If Z-FIRE was used to completely re-underwrite Amica’s entire California portfolio, in 2020 Amica would have prevented 95% of its wildfire losses in the state.” William Pitts, Senior Assistant Vice President, Amica

As you can see, property insurance companies are taking a much closer look at the risk of providing wildfire insurance, house-by-house, property-by-property, community-by-community. This technology is all about saving them from taking huge losses, not about “saving” their customers when The Big One comes.

Our first reaction to this trend might be, “The SOBs will try anything to get out of paying our loss claims.” But is this expectation, that the homeowner will take steps to protect their home from wildfire, really any different from the Fire Department’s stance that they can only protect an adequately mitigated property? If we live in the mountains, we have an inherent obligation to give our homes the best possible chance of surviving wildfire. Look for yourself: go to Google Maps, set to satellite view, type in your address…would YOU insure this property?

Do you sometimes scratch your head in bemusement when you read about folks rebuilding homes in communities repeatedly wiped out by floods or hurricanes? Imagine their reaction to our constant risk: living in a boxes of fuel in the forest! 

Fire management science has provided us with predictive risk models and tried-and-true measures we can take to reduce wildfire risk. Why wouldn’t we take action to protect the biggest part of our personal wealth, our homes and the land they sit on? The insurance companies will be happier, the Fire Department will be happier, and we can rest more easily at night. Sounds like a win-win-win to us!

See our amazing new website for step-by-step instructions to implement the Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) at www.CoalCreekCWPP.org.

Contact your CWPP Community Ambassador to find out what fire mitigation events are planned for your neighborhood or email us at CWPPforCCC@gmail.com.