What is California’s Safer from Wildfires discount?

What the regulation requires

Safer from Wildfires came out of a partnership between Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara and the emergency response agencies in Governor Newsom’s administration. It sorts mitigation into three layers: the structure, the immediate surroundings and the community. The rule that ties it to your premium is California Code of Regulations, title 10, section 2644.9, filed and operative October 14, 2022.

It applies to any insurer whose rating plan segments, creates a rate differential or surcharges the premium based on wildfire risk, personal or commercial. The Department of Insurance treats territorial rating that recognizes different levels of wildfire risk, explicitly or not, as covered too. Those insurers must reflect every mandatory measure below in the rate, and the Department’s insurer FAQ says each one needs its own separate discount or credit. The Department says the rule is mandated for admitted insurers and that it expects surplus lines carriers to offer similar discounts.

The measures that count

• The building. A Class A fire-rated roof (the Department says most roofs qualify, including asphalt shingle, concrete, brick or masonry tile and metal; wood shake shingles do not), enclosed eaves, ember- and fire-resistant vents, multipane windows or functional shutters, and at least 6 inches of noncombustible vertical clearance at the bottom of the exterior walls, measured from the ground up.
• The immediate surroundings. Vegetation and debris cleared from under decks; vegetation, mulch and stored combustibles cleared from within 5 feet of the house; only noncombustible materials, fences and gates included, within those 5 feet; combustible sheds and outbuildings removed from within 30 feet, as far as the land you control allows; and compliance with defensible space law (Public Resources Code section 4291 and local ordinances).
• The community. A Firewise USA site in good standing, or a Fire Risk Reduction Community on the Board of Forestry’s list. The Department’s insurer FAQ (revised September 2026) says the Board’s 2024 list appears to include all of Los Angeles County, so a property anywhere in the county should be eligible for some type of discount on that basis.

Your wildfire risk score and how to improve it

An insurer that rates on wildfire risk must give you its score or classification in writing within 15 days after you submit a completed application, at least 45 days before each renewal, at least 75 days before any nonrenewal, and within 30 days after you ask for a revised score because you finished a mitigation measure.

Along with the score, it has to give you the range of possible scores, where yours falls and how it affects your rate, a detailed explanation naming the features of your property that drove it, which measures would lower it, and the premium reduction each measure would earn under its current rating plan.

Each time it gives you the score, it must also tell you in writing that you can appeal. If you disagree, you can appeal to the insurer orally or in writing. It must acknowledge the appeal in writing within 10 calendar days and answer with a written decision within 30 calendar days. If you go through your broker (or the insurer’s agent), they have 5 calendar days to forward it, and the insurer then has 5 calendar days to acknowledge it and 30 to decide. With its decision, the insurer has to tell you in writing that you can contact the Department of Insurance if you disagree, and give you the Department’s toll-free consumer hotline and the web address of its Consumer Complaint Center.

How to ask your insurer for the credit

The Department’s consumer FAQ says to contact your insurer or broker once the work is done. You may need to show proof or allow an inspection, and the savings start at the beginning of the next policy period. How the insurer verifies is up to its filed underwriting rules, but if it requires an inspection it must offer a free option alongside any paid one, and it must accept an inspection by CAL FIRE or your local fire department. Firewise status is the insurer’s to verify through its data providers, not yours.

When a client finishes a project, I start with dated photos and contractor invoices, ask what the carrier’s process calls for, and request a revised score in writing. Credits differ from one company to the next, so the work is worth showing to more than one carrier. Who insures homes in California wildfire areas.

FAIR Plan mitigation discounts

The Department says the California FAIR Plan offers discounts as well, through a broker who places FAIR Plan coverage. The FAIR Plan introduced home hardening discounts effective August 23, 2023, in two groups, immediate surroundings and structure, on top of the Firewise discount it already offered. Its announcement said to qualify for either group a home had to meet every item in it, so ask which discounts your property qualifies for under the current rules. How the FAIR Plan works.

Common questions

Sources

• 10 CCR § 2644.9: consideration of mitigation factors; wildfire risk models (Cornell LII)
• California Department of Insurance: Safer from Wildfires
• California Department of Insurance: FAQ, Safer from Wildfires regulation (consumers, September 2026)
• California Department of Insurance: FAQ, Mitigation in Rating Plans and Wildfire Risk Models regulation (insurers, rev. 09/04/2026)
• California FAIR Plan: new discounts for homeowners taking steps to protect against wildfire (July 26, 2023)

General information about California’s Safer from Wildfires framework and 10 CCR § 2644.9 as of October 2026, not legal advice; the regulation, Department of Insurance guidance and each insurer’s filed rating plan control. Coverage depends on underwriting and the terms, conditions and exclusions of the policy actually issued.