Know your wildfire score before your insurer does.

The headline isn’t a discount. In much of Colorado’s wildland-urban interface, the real question is whether a carrier will write your policy at all — and increasingly, some now ask for documented mitigation before they will. Understanding your wildfire score, and being able to prove what you’ve done to harden your home, is first about keeping coverage in reach.

What is a wildfire insurance score?

A growing number of insurers rate each property with a wildfire-risk model — pulling in your location, the vegetation and terrain around you, and how your home is built and maintained. That score can feed directly into your premium and into the decision to write or renew. When a model drives that decision, you deserve to see it.

What does Colorado’s HB25-1182 give you?

Here’s how we read the law — verify the specifics that apply to your policy with the Colorado Division of Insurance and your carrier.

• Disclosure of your score. An insurer that uses a wildfire-risk model must tell you the risk score or rating it assigned your home.
• Credit for mitigation.The score should reflect mitigation — both what you’ve done to your own parcel and recognized community-level efforts — or the carrier should offer a documented-mitigation path.
• A path to appeal.You have a documented way to respond if you believe the score is wrong or doesn’t account for your mitigation.
• The same applies on non-renewal. If wildfire risk drives a non-renewal, the disclosure is intended to apply there too — ask for the score and the basis.

What should the notice tell you?

When wildfire risk affects your pricing or renewal, look for the score itself, the model or basis behind it, how mitigation was (or wasn’t) counted, and the steps to appeal. If any of that is missing, you can ask your carrier for it — and confirm what you’re owed with the Colorado Division of Insurance.

How does documentation feed an appeal?

An appeal is only as strong as what you can show. A Fire Resiliency Inspectionwalks your property against the recognized hardening checklists and hands you a packet — photos, materials, and a gap list — that documents what’s done and what’s left. That’s the record you attach to an appeal, and the same record our insurance experts use to represent you with your carrier.

A note on discounts: any premium credit for mitigation varies by carrier and tends to be small next to the cost of the work itself. We won’t tell you mitigation pays for itself in discounts — its real value is keeping your home insurable.

Common questions

What is a wildfire insurance score?

It's a risk rating some insurers assign your property using wildfire-risk models — based on factors like your location, surrounding vegetation, and home hardening. Carriers can use it to set your premium or decide whether to write or renew your policy at all.

What does HB25-1182 give Colorado homeowners?

As we read Colorado's HB25-1182, an insurer that uses a wildfire-risk model must disclose your risk score, reflect parcel- and community-level mitigation, and give you a documented path to appeal. Confirm the specifics that apply to your policy with the Colorado Division of Insurance and your carrier.

Will mitigation lower my premium?

It can, but the more important benefit is insurability — keeping or obtaining coverage at all. Any premium credit varies by carrier and is generally small next to the cost of the retrofit, so we never frame mitigation as something that pays for itself in discounts.

How does documentation help if I disagree with my score?

A documented record of your home's hardening — photos, materials, and a checklist assessment — is what you attach to an appeal. That's the packet a Fire Resiliency Inspection produces.

Does this apply when my policy is non-renewed?

The disclosure right is intended to apply on non-renewal as well as at pricing. If you receive a non-renewal tied to wildfire risk, ask your carrier for the score and the basis, and confirm your rights with the Colorado Division of Insurance.

Keep going

• Fire Resiliency Inspection & Home Hardening Assessment
• Colorado Wildfire Resiliency Code — the 25% roof rule
• IBHS Wildfire Prepared Home in Colorado
• Insurance claim & coverage experts