Resiliency 101: stay insurable

A fire-resilient house will keep your family safe, bring your bills down, and protect your property value.

Here’s what you need to know.

*This information has been checked for accuracy and non-bias by licensed professionals, subject matter experts, and previous survivors. Consult with a licensed professional about your specific situation.

the warnings

If you talk to people who have already gone through mega-fires, they’ll tell you bluntly: “If you don’t rebuild to be fire-resilient, you’ll struggle to get insurance.”

Insurance companies often pull out of areas that have burned, or they jack up rates to the point where coverage is unaffordable. If you don’t meet fire-resilient building standards, you may find your premiums skyrocket - if you can get a policy at all.

When that happens, the fallback is the California FAIR Plan. It’s a bare-bones option: it doesn’t cover your belongings inside the house, and it doesn’t cover “loss of use” (the cost of living elsewhere while your home is uninhabitable).

Ending up on the FAIR Plan can drag down your property value and make it harder to sell, because buyers don’t want the risk of owning an uninsurable home.

the solution

By making some adjustments to your plans or existing home, you can qualify for certifications that keep you insurable - ( you can even get a discount on your premium!). These adjustments don’t have to be super expensive.

What is

Resiliency?

In simplest terms, a “hardened” or “resilient” home is one that fire has a hard time getting into. The exterior isn’t flammable, there’s nothing combustible immediately around it, and there are no openings where embers can get in and catch.

With a new build, achieving “Resiliency” is a matter of adjusting a few things in your plans. With a standing home, it’s a matter of retrofitting what you already have, which can be a little more expensive and involved, but still very doable.

what do 

i need to do?

The most surefire way to set yourself up to be able to get insurance is to make sure your home is built (or retrofitted) to “Wildfire Prepared” Standard.

This is a set of guidelines issued by a non-profit research institute called IBHS, which is funded by the insurance industry to find which resiliency measures are most effective.

The insurance industry gambles that your home won’t get damaged or destroyed, so the better protected your property is, the safer bet you are. When you build to IBHS standards, insurance companies see you as a lower risk — and often reward you for it.

what’s

involved?

There are two levels: “Base” and “Plus”. Both can qualify you for discounts from insurers.

Meeting the “Base” Standard may involve some minor changes to your plans, but much of it is required for new builds in California.

That includes things like:

  • Ember-resistant exterior vents

    • Just means using a smaller mesh

  • Upgraded windows

    • Required for 7A homes, too

  • Class A Fire-rated roof

    • Required for all new builds

  • Non-combustible siding and trim

    • Stucco counts! There are also a ton of materials that qualify that are paintable, look just like wood, etc.

  • 5 feet with nothing combustible around your structures

The major difference between “Base” and “Plus” is the spacing between structures (30 feet), which may not be possible for everyone, depending on your lot size.

“Plus” is not mandatory for insurability - meeting “Base” is excellent.

Is it

required?

If you fall within a “High Fire Severity Risk Zone”, you are required to build to Chapter 7A, which is very close to the IBHS standard. (If you meet the IBHS “Wildfire Prepared” standard, you will exceed the requirements of Chapter 7A.)

Otherwise, building with resiliency measures is not required.

But…

Insurers aren’t concerned with what’s required, just how safe the home is. Building resiliently is critical to staying insurable and protecting your property value.

How much

does it

cost?

Annoyingly, the answer is it depends.

On a new build, with no grants, discounts, rebates or bundling with neighbors it adds roughly $27k to construction costs to build to IBHS Wildfire Prepared Home Plus standard.

With insurance and energy efficiency savings, it’s estimated that would be recouped in 4-5 years.

Anything that is required will fall under your “Ordinance & Law Coverage”, if you have it.

For a guide to your coverages and figuring out what you have, click here.

Does my

insurance

cover this?

If you have “Ordinance & Law” coverage, your policy will cover required mitigation measures, up to your policy limits. You’ll need to check if you fall within a “High Fire Severity Risk Zone” to know if you are required to build to Chapter 7A - in which case, your insurance will cover it.

Here’s how you check:

  1. Put your address into the map at this link.

  2. If your home is in a “Local Responsibility Area” and in the red, “very high”, you have to build to Chapter 7A.

i want to do

wildfire prepared.

What do i

need to do?

  • Send this handbook to your architect or builder and ask them to confirm whether your home will meet the standard.

  • Amend your contract with them to ensure that the finished product meets IBHS Wildfire Prepared Standard.